Infinite Stratos: The G Chronicles
by Zadine05
Summary: The world believes Ichika Orimura to be the first male IS Pilot, but they are wrong. "The First" was found only a month before in the US, but kept in secret, for his mere existence would shake the world's foundations. Now, 6 months later, after a dangerous incident leaving him abandoned, he is sent to the IS academy in search of a new solution. (OC Insertion, Gundam/ IS Crossover)
1. New Kid on the block

Finally, I've gotten this uploaded. Infinite Stratos is owned by OVERLAP and Izuru Yumizuru. This is my first fan-fic, feel free to judge as you please! Every suggestion helps! This story begins in-between episodes 8 and 9 of the anime series.

**Infinite Stratos: The G Chronicles**

**Chapter 1: New kid in town**

**6 months before present time:**

-Inside a Pentagon meeting room, the Secretary of Defense along with his most trusted advisers along with the head of the CIA convene a meeting to discuss a very important discovery within their own borders.-

"There is no way we could have predicted this Mr. Secretary! Who would've expected a male to pop up that could fly those giant metal contraptions?!"

"Relax general, I'm not blaming you completely for the matter, but as you are aware this will be a great discovery to the rest of the world, but it will no doubt not be to our advantage to lose this asset."

"Well then, why don't we just keep it a secret? Sure it'll take a few of the right people to pay for their silence on the matter, including the military leaders of our research base, but I'm sure we can make it a great possibility."

"I've read his history and I do admit General it leaves a certain bad mark on our society, but for what it's worth the boy seems to have good judgment in certain scenarios...Let us wait and see if he can become a useful ally. Until then this meeting is adjourned."

**Present Day: **

The boy started down the hallway he knew led to his new classroom. He kept looking right and left so as to pick up on any signs that could lead him there. _Luckily these class signs stick out like a sore thumb over the doorways. This place is pretty high-tech though...I only hope I can fit in better here than at my old school. _The IS Academy he was in was one of the most advanced places in the world. Everything from the student's desks to the classroom signs and even the outside decorations looked like things from 200 years in the future. The boy started picking up the pace when he noticed the numbers of the classrooms starting to lead down to his own. _There it is! Class 1 is where I need to be...hope they won't be too pissed if I'm a few seconds late._ Once the boy entered into the room though, he found himself panting in front of a classroom filled to the brim with beautiful girls and 1 guy that had dark-blue hair and brown eyes and was around the same height as himself sitting at the front. After he regained his composure, he started to approach the front by the teacher until suddenly, he found himself being smacked hard by an unknown assailant on the head.

"Next time you're late to class young man I'll make you run 10 laps around this entire campus! Now introduce yourself!" The boy turned to see a young woman who seemed to be in her mid-twenties with brown eyes and long black hair tied in a ponytail that went down to her waist. His mind started racing when he recognized who she was: The first I.S. World championship winner: Chifuyu Orimura. He suddenly straightened up while turning to face the class. The boy then ruffled through his hair a little as he looked around the classroom. _Man the girls here all look WONDERFUL! This should be fun at least. _He thought to himself with a grin.

* * *

The new student Ichika was looking at seemed to be a physically normal American boy. He was around 6 foot tall, his hair, which seemed almost a chocolatey dark brown color that appeared to be thick and wavy while going down over his forehead, and had dark blue eyes that were reminiscent of the bottom of the ocean itself. He seemed elated at first to see a new male student at the school, but hesitated as he had only just gotten past the whole event of Charles being a girl in actuality.

The boy was then introduced by Ms. Yamada ,their homeroom teacher, and began his first words to his classmates as all the girls leaned forward in anticipation, hoping to hear some interesting things about the newcomer.

He began with what seemed like a sincere smile before he cleared his throat. "I'm glad to meet all of you today... My name is Arthur Stone, and I look forward to our times we will share here." He finished while keeping the same smile. "Any questions for the new student anyone?" Ms. Yamada asked out loud. A girl with very curly light-blonde hair and light-blue eyes stood up from her seat. "Yes, I have a question for the newcomer. Arthur, is it?" She asked with a smug smile on her face. Ichika could tell that Arthur seemed to treat listening to Cecilia almost like a game, as he seemed to just sit and wait for her to finish. "Are you currently a representative contender for the United States..or just here for testing a new unit?" she asked with intense curiosity in her eyes. Arthur's face seemed to change to a very serious frown while he glared at Cecilia, almost as if peeking into her very soul. _ I think you just hit the hornet's nest Cecilia... _Ichika thought to himself with a half-hearted sigh. "I'm neither. I was actually supposed to receive my own personal unit from the U.S. Government. However I turned down the suit after I saw the design, and the intent behind it." He said firmly as he narrowed his eyes.

The entire class fell backwards as if a sudden gust of wind had sweeped them off their feet and dropped them back down forcefully. Many questions started to come Arthur's direction. The most common one being "Who turns down a chance for a personalized unit?!". After Chifuyu began to calm them down, the gossiping between the girls came to an end, with Cecilia deciding to ask one more question. "You said you turned it down after seeing the design, that I may understand...but what do you mean by "the intent behind it"?"

As Ichika looked back over to Arthur, he seemed to sigh before taking a deep breath. "Because it was barbaric in nature. IS's are for a sport, not massacres. That's a fact a lot of people seem to forget nowadays." He retorted with deep hatred behind the words and walked to a seat near the back of the room, leaving the entire room speechless. Cecilia, having then decided there was no point in continuing, admitted defeat while sitting back down, letting class resume like normal.

* * *

_That went awkward. This new boy seems to be quite an idealistic one_ Charlotte thought to herself while occasionally looking back at Arthur to see if everything was alright. She was glad that he seemed to not notice, since she didn't know if he was the type who would say something out loud to her or not. _Why do I keep looking back? Sure, he seems interesting, but it shouldn't distract me this much_ She kept thinking to herself until she finally raised her hand. "What is it, Dunois?" Chifuyu asked with a scowl on her face. "I...need to go use the bathroom..so if you'll excuse me." She replied with a half-baked smile as she wedged in between the desks and out the door. When she finally got to the bathroom, she pushed the door and entered, then headed towards the sink to wash her face. _Why does looking at him bother me so much? Is it because of what he said?...I only just met the guy...I haven't even talked to him! Why am I already acting this way?!_ She kept distressing to herself as she paced back and forth. Until finally, she arrived at the conclusion.._That's why! That look of his...and those eyes... are just like my mother's. _She realized and lamented to herself at the thought of her mother._ I need to be more careful so I don't overreact like this too often. _She reassured herself as she exited the bathroom, only to find someone waiting outside beside the door. She responded by partially deploying her Raphael Revive's right arm and sub-machine gun and pointed it at the would-be pervert until she saw it was Arthur. "What? You're gonna shoot me without even letting me ask your name?", he inquired with a half-hearted grin as he put his hands up. Charlotte then blushed a little realizing it was him and put away her IS. "So...why are you waiting out here for me exactly?" she inquired with a frustrated frown on her face. "W-well the instructor wanted to send someone since you were apparently taking a while and I offered to. After all, you DID keep looking back at me before you left." he replied, shocking her that he had actually noticed it. He then sighed heavily and looked over at the huge window on the opposite wall of the bathroom. "Class time is basically over in 5 minutes. Why don't we have a short chat, just you and me?" Arthur asked as he walked over to and leaned on the guard railing behind the huge archway to the outside.

* * *

Once class finally ended, Ichika walked over to where his friends Houki, Cecilia, and Laura were gathering as they waited for their friend Rin from class 2 to show up. They were all three apparently talking about Arthur and why Charlotte hadn't come back yet. "I'm just saying he comes off a bit rude, if not repulsive by that mouth of his" Cecilia complained as she frowned while folding her arms across her chest. "Quit your complaining. You're only mad because someone finally got you to be quiet" Houki replied with a deathly scowl as she looked down upon Cecilia in her desk. "Isn't it still strange though, that he turned down a customized IS unit for himself?" Laura inquired as she broke into the conversation. "I have never heard of such a thing happening. Usually in any country in the world, obtaining a personalized IS is a distinguishing reward for oneself..." she kept pondering and sat down in a nearby chair.

Ichika walked up before decided to give his opinion. "Either way guys, we should probably welcome him in don't you think? I mean he is new and I'm sure we'll all get along with him in due time. We just need to get to know him don't you agree?" he asked them, awaiting their response. "Actually I was wondering about you Cecilia. You kept looking over at him as if you were analyzing him for something. Anything you want to tell us?". The question struck Cecilia somewhat surprisingly and left her catching her breath for a moment. When she finally caught her breath, she waved it off to them saying, "Its nothing really." with what appeared to be a fake smile before hurrying off to the cafeteria.

* * *

Arthur kept looking out the glass-covered archway at the large group of girls in the courtyard practicing sword swings in their IS's. Their suits looked like gray samurai armor that had large floating shoulder pauldrons with red linings all across the seems of the body that seemed to graft around the pilot's skin, leaving only the arms, upper legs, and head exposed. Arthur, as if stuck in a trance, kept staring at them, until Charlotte snapped him back to reality with a question. "Um, Arthur are you all right?" She inquired. Arthur shook his head for a second and took a deep breath. "Huh? Oh y-yea, I'm fine. I was stuck in thought...sorry about that." He replied with a sincere smile and continued looking out the window. "I'm sorry that something about me seems to bother you...but please don't be afraid to ask me anything or raise your concerns. I know I may have seemed very unapproachable back there but don't worry, I'm more than happy to hear people's problems." With this Charlotte felt a little more relaxed while they began their conversation. She began telling him her story and how she remembered most of her father's features because she'd only seen him once. The part that appeared to interest Arthur the most was how she was forced to be an IS pilot by her father, after seeing her high aptitude rating for the machine, thus her normal life was taken even more from her. After hearing her story, Arthur began to become somewhat agitated.

"How can someone call themselves a father when they would do something like that?!" he exclaimed and slammed his fist on the railing they were both leaning on. He then turned to look at her with eyes filled with rage that appeared to startle her back slowly. After he realized the effect it was having, he began to look away with disgust at himself. Though when he began to try to calm down, he felt her put her hand on his. He felt slightly nervous at that moment as he looked over at her. She was a beautiful girl with blonde hair that was tied almost exactly like Chifuyu's. She also had purple eyes that seemed to be able to light up anyone's day or bad mood and make them feel as if everything was alright. Her most appealing feature however, seemed to be that smile of hers that was almost angelic-like to Arthur. "Your concern shows me you have a lot of compassion and I appreciate it. However, the last thing I want to be is a burden on someone" She said with that same angelic smile. "Besides I can take care of myself". Arthur then looked down at his fists on the railing, agitated at his true powerlessness. _She's right in that regard...If I hadn't turned down that damned IS I could make a believable position of protection, but even so... _He sighed deeply as his hands began to stop shaking so much as he turned to see her still smiling. "Your right... even if I offered to protect you, I have nothing to protect you with." he said, slightly disappointed with himself. Charlotte suddenly blushed a little at his response, but tried to hide the expression. "U-um Actually I have to get back to my friends now. They're probably waiting in the classroom for me" she stammered with a nervous chuckle. "I-if you like, I can introduce you to them."

"No, I think I've already made a bad impression...plus I'm a little hungry," he replied chuckling as well. Arthur started then towards the cafeteria, until he remembered something and turned back to face her. "By the way, even after this little chat I don't believe we've properly introduced ourselves." He said as he re-approached her while extending his hand out. "My name's Arthur Stone...and to whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?" he inquired comically with a grin.

"Charlotte Dunois...pleased to meet you," she replied with a happy smile and extended hers out to shake his hand. They then both walked their separate paths. Never knowing this moment would define the rest of their lives.


	2. The First Rule: Survival

**Chapter 2: The First Rule: Survival**

Since Arthur felt like he needed to hurry up and sit down so people would stop staring at him, he decided to sit in a booth by one of the windows as he began to eat his ramen. About half-way through his meal, he decided to pull a couple of folded-up papers from his pocket. They were drawings he had made himself over a span of 5 years. He remembered how the old shows he had watched as a kid had inspired him to draw them, though he could also remember laughing at himself whenever he considered the possibility they could become a reality. _You know sometimes, I swear I'm still just that same little kid. All alone with nothing better to do than draw and create...hopefully this place can be enjoyable to where I never have to remember OR repeat that again. _He thought while frowning to himself in the reflection of the soup in the ramen. He started to examine the drawings again, until he heard someone mention his name. It was a girl with very light red hair, with what seemed like strange hairpins along with a pajama outfit that resembled a dog. She for some reason kept her hands deep within the sleeves of the suit as well, though he recognized her as someone from his class. Arthur, taken aback somewhat by the "unique" look she had, then straightened up very quickly. She was joined by 2 other girls, one with waist-long black hair and an average look, while the other one had long brown hair tied in 2 long pigtails. The hair-pin one in the middle stammered a little until she finally blurted out, "M-mind if we sit with you? I mean as long as we're not intruding on anything." she said while chuckling nervously.

Arthur pondered to himself for a second as if he was in his own world until he snapped back to reality and looked at the three girls and smiled. "Of course you can sit here. I'm always happy to get to know my fellow classmates." _So far, so good. Just keep yourself interesting and then we can go far from here._ He kept reassuring himself as the three girls joined him in the booth. The one with the strange hair-pins was the first to talk.

"Soooooo...I'm Honne Nohotoke...and my specialty is in the IS repair and construction club." She said as she twitched her outfit's ears. "What about yourself Arthur, what are you interested in doing?" The one with the long pigtails said. Arthur folded up the drawings again and put them away in his pocket and proceeded to think about what it was he DID want to do. Upon finding his answer, he leaned back and looked up at the ceiling with a deep smile he himself knew he never used often.

"You know actually...sometimes I wonder that myself." He said as he lowered his head down slightly. "Promise you won't laugh at me if I tell you?" He asked them all and they nodded in response. "The one thing I have always wanted to become... is a savior. Someone who can change things for the better... someone who has a chance to make their own path." He finished as he looked back down at the liquid in his ramen bowl at his own reflection. "Though sometimes I wonder if I would really be someone suited to that kind of job."

The three girls looked at each other and then back to Arthur. The black-haired girl decided it was her turn to talk. "Well, one thing my mother used to tell me was that all you need to start making a dream come true is the desire to. I'm Yuzu Tanimoto by the way." She said with a bright smile.

"Your mother sounds like a wise person." Arthur replied with a chuckle.

"Thanks", Yuzu answered back as she began eating her own lunch. The four of them continued their conversation without end for awhile as some of the other students began to take interest in what they were talking about, peering over from time to time.

However, as Arthur tried to continue the conversation, a blonde-haired girl with jade-colored eyes approached them. She suddenly stared down at Arthur and uttered only three words. "Come with me." and as if he had become possessed by some strange desire to listen, he got up and followed her.

* * *

Ichika was struggling to figure out which one he should choose. He and his five friends Houki, Rin, Cecilia, Charlotte, and Laura were up on the roof eating their lunches. Somehow though, the conversation had steered in the direction of Ichika tasting some of their food, which left all five of them eagerly awaiting to see who he'd pick first. His stomach began twisting as he knew whichever one he chose, the others would basically kill him. He decided to look at them from left to right to try to make his choice. Houki, was a dark-brown haired girl with dark blue eyes with her hair tied in a split ponytail. She was Ichika's first childhood friend since he was six years old. To the right of her was Ichika's second childhood friend Rin. Rin was, alongside Laura, the shortest of the group with hazel-colored eyes and light-brown hair tied with two yellow ribbons making long pigtails. Alongside being the representative contender for China, she became Ichika's second childhood friend about a year after Houki left. Beside her was the representative of England, Cecilia. She was a light-blonde haired girl with it mostly in curls along with having bright blue eyes. Laura was the next one; she was the representative for Germany, while one of her eyes had an eye-patch she had a red eye and long silver hair that went below her waist. Charlotte was the last one of the group. She had blonde hair tied in a ponytail like his older sister, along with purple eyes. While also being the representative of France, she seemed to be the peacemaker of the group as she was always trying to calm everyone down and keep the mood bearable. As he was about to make his final choice, they suddenly all heard the door to the stairs slam open, and out came Arthur with a girl Ichika didn't recognize.

They seemed to be arguing about something, and it looked like the girl was winning. Rin suddenly got up and walked over to the two, acting as if she recognized the girl. "Tina?" She asked out loud as she approached. This prompted them both to stop and turn to Rin's direction.

"Rin, what are you-" the girl stopped as she looked over Rin's shoulder and saw Ichika and the rest of the personal IS users sitting in a circle, having understood the situation. Arthur then looked back Tina's way and glared in her direction.

"Look Tina, I appreciate your offer but I already told the head of the project I'm not piloting that IS. You can give it to someone else who wants to represent the US in their little war games." he spoke with a hint of annoyance in his voice and stormed off back down the stairs, leaving Tina slightly depressed. _Wonder what that's all about?_ Ichika thought to himself before noticing Charlotte had run after Arthur down the stairs. _And when did those two become friends? _He thought as he became increasingly more confused by the entire situation. He saw Rin bring Tina over to where they were eating to try and cheer her up. Of course, the first one to break the awkward silence that lasted for around 5 minutes was Laura.

"So, Ichika...who's lunch do you choose to try first?" _Seriously?! We just had a couple of people argue in front of us and a couple of people run off and THAT'S your first question?!_ Ichika struggled to gather the thoughts in his mind, but yet seemed not so surprised by Laura's usual demeanor of not caring too much. He then decided to just suck it up and go with the flow.

* * *

Charlotte finally got down the stairs as she looked around for Arthur. She could tell when she saw him storm off, it was something that hurt badly. She ran down the hallway to her left before rounding the corner as fast as she could until she suddenly stopped. Arthur was sitting on a bench in-between two small fish tanks grafted to the wall, looking at a crumpled piece of paper. She started to approach him, until he looked over and noticed her coming towards him, while taking a few deep breaths to re-gain himself. "I didn't think you'd be the one coming after me. Something you need?" he asked rather blankly, as if nothing had just happened.

"But of course, um...did you know that girl by any chance?" Charlotte inquired nervously. Arthur kept staring off into space as he seemed to re-call some repressed memories.

"Yea...I went through basic training for the IS with her. Her name's Tina Hamilton. We made a good team her and I. We were both known as the High Aces, a 2-man team that could almost read the others thoughts without a word. She got sent here before me though since her IS was completed first. However, when I turned down the IS they offered, she probably cheered up somewhat when she heard the news."

"Why would she be happy, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Because of the fact that she hasn't seen my face in a couple of months. We'd exchange letters during the time she spent here before I arrived. I guess though that whenever I turned down the IS they were making for me, they basically decided to just throw me here."

Charlotte decided to sit down next to him on the bench as there was one question that kept bothering her. "Let me ask you this, why does it sound like you turned down the IS half-way through? I mean, wouldn't you want to see it through to the end?"

Arthur's facial features darkened a lot suddenly and began his story. "The fact is your assessment of the situation is correct. In fact, I'm the one who designed the very schematic for the suit itself. It's armaments, speed factor, placement of boosters, unique features, EVERYTHING was designed by me personally. The government just provided the resources and manpower to make it a reality. Half-way through however, they began changing it up. At first, I didn't pay any attention to it; I'd just mind my own business and keep working. Once I saw what it was becoming though, I wanted out immediately. The part that haunts me the most is what she just told me. They're actually going to try and finish that monstrosity of a machine." he paused for a moment so as to gather his thoughts carefully. "The sad part is that they call it the most advanced machine they've ever built...Yet I have a better one in mind that can far out-class it already." He explained as he put his hands together, contemplating about his past choices. He then took a deep breath and his features began to regress back to normal. "I'll probably apologize to her later, she was only trying to get me to pilot it so maybe it wouldn't be misused." He finally looked back up, his eyes focusing directly at Charlotte. "I appreciate your coming here...I'm not used to venting my problems to people, so having you here really helps a lot." All he could do after that was smile at her.

Charlotte blushed slightly at the notion but could only reply, "I'm just thinking that since you listened to my problems, it would be fair to listen to yours as well." She could only smile, and even though she thought that wasn't much of a thing to say, she could tell that was more than enough to lift his spirits. "If you don't mind me asking, did you not like America or something along those lines? You seem to harbor some kind of hatred for them."

"You could say I just hate ignorance...and some of the people I met over there had a lot of that. When you warn others against something and all they do is ignore you...it's hard not to harbor either pity or hatred for them. I agree with what the country stands for mind you, but lately I've come to lose faith in them." Upon finishing his explanation, the tension in the air started to rise again.

"Well, I should get going, I'm sure the others are going to want me to accompany them for IS practice, so I guess I'll see you later." she said quickly and got up to walk back to where her friends were. While she was walking away though, one part of Arthur's monologue kept catching her attention. "_I'm the one who designed the very schematic for the suit itself...They call it their most advanced...I have a better one already in mind." _As these words kept racing through her mind she found herself becoming quite puzzled by how a random 15 year old boy would know how to build an IS from the ground up.

* * *

Ichika leaned back on the wall of the arena's locker room by the door as he waited for the girls to get into their pilot uniforms. He was starting to enjoy the cool breezes that were always flying throughout the academy grounds on days such as this. _Luckily, this academy is built on an entire island, surrounded by a city. So that when this kind of breeze comes in, unlike in the city, there is nothing blocking it from feeling soothing. _It was unusually sunny today as well. Summer WAS around the corner though, so it was somewhat understandable to him how the days were starting to heat up to where they'd sometimes have relaxing days like this. As he closed his eyes to take in the sunshine, the door opened up and the 5 girls came out. They seemed mostly cheerful, except for Laura with her usual blank face. One thing he always felt nervous about when looking at them, was the fact that their uniforms were skin-tight and more than slightly revealing. _Seriously, every time I see these IS uniforms I question the gender of the one who designed these..._ He thought to himself with a chuckle as he entered the locker room. "I'll meet you guys inside the arena, just gimme a few minutes." he said and shut the door behind him.

He went to his locker and began changing into his uniform as well. Although his was skin-tight as well, it covered everything except his lower chest, so it didn't seem as provocative as the female ones. Once he finished getting changed, he started walking towards the door, when it opened and Arthur came in. The two stared at each other awkwardly for a few seconds until one of them broke the silence. "Oh, uh...Hi! Your um...Ichika Orimura right?" Arthur said, snapping his fingers repeatedly while trying to remember and extended out his hand. "Nice to finally meet the first male IS pilot. I'm Arthur." He said with a nervous smile. Ichika looked at him for a second before shaking his hand and smiling back as well, lowering the tension in the room. "I-I was just here to put my uniform up in my assigned locker. I hope I'm not intruding on anything private." Arthur said as he walked past Ichika.

Arthur opened the locker about 3 lockers right of Ichika's and started hanging up his stuff. _Well, I guess one would say this is the best chance to get to know him _Ichika figured."Hey, uh Arthur. Would you like to practice IS with me and the others? They were the ones with me on the roof" Arthur seemed to stop for a second, not realizing Ichika was up there during that scene he made. "I'm fine thanks. I appreciate the offer, but I need to go check out my dorm room and get things set up. I'm sorry you had to see that side of me up there by the way, I don't get like that too terribly often. I guess I was just trying to adjust to the surroundings as well as my phobia at that moment."

"Your phobia?" Ichika asked full of curiosity.

"Usually I don't tell people much about me but you seem trustworthy" Arthur said as he turned around and shut the locker door behind him. "I have a fear of heights. REALLY bad fear of heights. Especially since the farther up I go, the more dizzy I become. It starts to feel like the ground is shifting beneath me, an experience the doctors at the base I was at told me was called vertigo." Arthur started to look down, slightly ashamed by his secret. "Its the only thing that has held me back throughout my life all this time...I always wanted to see the world from atop mountains and hills, and look down upon the land, full of wonders and beauty. The IS was the best thing I would've had to soar through the skies like a-" He stopped daydreaming for a second and stammered slightly. "I-I'm sorry, I'm probably boring you...anyway it was nice meeting you Ichika. I look forward to being good friends with you if at all possible" He said and started hurrying towards the exit. _What a strange guy...seems good-natured at heart though at least._ Ichika summed up, then decided he had kept everyone waiting long enough and went out towards the arena. One thought however, kept racing through his mind. _How the hell did a pilot who is afraid of heights make it this far?_


	3. An Old Flame

**Chapter 3: An Old Flame**

Tina had been sulking the entire afternoon. She didn't like it when she couldn't read someone; and Arthur was always that one anomaly she couldn't understand. Even back during their days of training, she remembered how she thought that she would have him all figured out...and then he would show another trait that would throw her off-balance. _At least he hasn't changed since those days...still somewhat of a brat though _she thought with a giggle and pulled out a photo from her pocket. It was a picture of the two of them in the airfield on the base after they had finished training. She had always cherished it because it was the only thing reminding her of him other than the letters they wrote to each other. It was thanks to her after-all, that he had already known most of the academy's layout to where he could navigate without difficulty. She sighed slightly and kept looking at the photo with a smile on her face. _Back then it was just the two of us...I wonder if he still remembers that promise he made me. _She scoffed at the thought of it. _Jeez, even with how smart he is, his personal life is a joke...though that would probably be due to his lack of effort in the memory department..._as she seemed to trail off into her own thoughts, her face perked up when she suddenly noticed an exhausted Arthur heading her way. As if by instinct, she quickly slipped the photo back into her pocket, so he wouldn't suspect anything and turned around to face the water.

* * *

Arthur kept walking down the path to the main dorms. He was exhausted from trying to navigate the place all day long. _It really is hard to believe this has all happened in one day. What a mess...and Tina's directions didn't exactly help in getting around easily._ he sighed heavily until he looked over at the water fountain that was set in front of the small stream that ran through the island. There he spotted Tina sitting underneath one of the trees nearby it, watching the stream flow by her. _That airhead...and here I was worried she'd be locking herself in her dorm. Well, now is a good a chance as any to apologize to her. _He decided to himself and proceeded to walk over towards her. Once he finally made it there, he could tell she wasn't actually watching the stream, but in reality waiting for someone to keep her company. He decided to indulge in her desire and sat next to her underneath the tree. "So...you enjoying the view here?"

"Yes," she answered with a peaceful smile. "I've always loved the tranquility of this place...it's as if the world and all it's problems don't exist here...and we are the selected few who are able to enjoy this paradise." Tina then took a deep breath of fresh air and leaned her head over on Arthur's shoulder before wrapping her arms around his own. "I'm sleepy... so could you sit here with me for just awhile longer?", she muttered as she closed her eyes. Arthur put on that smile he rarely used while he started stroking her hair softly. One of his favorite things about Tina was her soft and wavy golden hair that felt almost like silk to the touch; coupled with the scent she always seemed to have on, it was hard to believe she was ever something akin to a soldier.

"Same lazy Tina as always-" he tried to say, but was suddenly interrupted by Tina elbowing him in the stomach.

"That's no way to talk to your girlfriend, mister" she added comically. Arthur chuckled slightly as he laid his head back against the tree's trunk so as to take in the scene before him.

The stream kept going on and on until it went under a small angled concrete bridge and re-entered into the ocean. Coupled with the well-trimmed grass that covered the rolling hills in some parts of the terrain, the adequate number of bushy, full of life trees, and modern-day buildings; he had to admit it DID seem like a paradise. "Hey Tina...I-I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier. You were just trying to help me and well... you didn't deserve that kind of treatment." Once Arthur finished what he had to say he let out a deep sigh as if a heavy burden was lifted from him and waited for her response, but saw she was either thinking deeply or just knocked out cold. _Well I guess I'm stuck here until she wakes __up...hopefully that's soon._ He looked over at the bridge though to see Ichika and the rest of his friends crossing to go back to their dorms for the evening. From the looks of things however, it seemed as if they all kept fighting over who could get Ichika's attention, which piqued Arthur's interest. _That lucky guy's got a harem going on I suppose...and here I thought those were just make-believe …HA! Still_ _those guys all look so happy… they remind me of some of the people I left behind back home. _He threw away the idea of it though the moment he remembered the word** home**. _No...That's what I want to avoid...is a repeat of all that. _He then looked over at Tina's sleeping face as he placed his hand over her own. _I promised her I'd leave those memories behind...so for her sake of not seeing me like that again, I will. _After about a half-hour had passed he decided they had sat there long enough and poked Tina's arm repeatedly. "Tina...Hey Tina, it's getting dark; we should get going." No response except her calmed breathing. Arthur let out a deep yawn and shook his head. _Looks like we're doing this the hard way. _He then decided to pick up Tina in his arms like a princess so he could carry her to her room. _Wonderful first day...JUST WONDERFUL! _He sarcastically thought to himself as he made his way to the dorms.

* * *

Rin had finally separated herself from the group, exhausted from the practice they had. While making her way to her room's door, out of the corner of her eye she spotted something rounding the corner. What she saw was the new boy everyone was talking about carrying her roommate Tina like a princess. Her mind began racing with thoughts of why this was happening, until finally she came to one conclusion. "Pervert!" she yelled at the top of her lungs while charging towards the boy and jumped into the air, preparing her foot for his face. Upon impact, the boy seemed to let out a slight yelp of pain before falling to the ground. As she landed, Rin made a heroic pose to show off like she had just "saved the day." The boy put his hand to his head and got up slowly, though by the time he had gotten up a crowd had gathered around the three.

"Ugh... what the hell was that for?!" the boy asked angrily.

"I saw what you were doing! You were carrying my roommate while she was asleep! Probably to take her to your secret lair where you'll do un-told things to her!" Rin stammered out, blushing intensely as her mind raced with impotent thoughts of the two.

The boy's blank face seemed to twitch slightly once he had heard her reasoning as he stood up while ruffling his hand through his hair agitatedly. "OK...FIRST of all, she fell asleep while we were talking! SECOND of all, don't you think that if I WAS doing something like that I'd have been more sneaky about it?!" _Oh, wait...thaaaaat was probably not the best excuse to use_ he thought to himself with disdain.

All that resulted from his outburst was the crowd pointing and yelling at him, calling him names such as "Pervert!" or "Peeping tom!", himself becoming confused why they were already accusing him of such things. By this point, the crowd had gathered enough noise for concern, and from the far back came a high and mighty voice. "Just WHAT do you all think you're all doing crowding the halls?!". Upon hearing the loud voice, the girls split into rows along the wall, almost as if by instinct, leaving only the boy and Tina in the middle of the hallway. Rin froze up on the wall, so as to avoid detection by whom she knew was coming.

Chifuyu's annoyance had reached it's peak as she made her way through the two rows of students to the 2 sitting in the middle. She pulled out her wooden sword swiftly once she made it to the two and pointed it at the boy near the sleeping girl. "So, the new guy's already making trouble huh?" She said out loud, her face turning a dark crimson red color. "Listen here fella, I don't like when I have to go out of my way to clean up someone else's mess...you catch my drift?" She said as she knelt down in front of him. The boy seemed to shake slightly, having most likely remembered being hit by her this morning for arriving late. "So tell me...what happened here?" she inquired as she looked at the small bruise on the boy's forehead. She then noticed Rin out of the corner of her eye and looked her way. "You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with that mark on his head, would you?" She asked darkly, almost making Rin shiver crazily in response. Rin, still shivering, tried to make that same cute/fake smile of hers to make it seem like she was innocent that Chifuyu had known about since Rin was a child. "W-why would I be the prime suspect? He c-could've gotten that from anywhere." she replied while looking away to both sides of her. "Look me in the eye when making an explanation, cadet." Chifuyu ordered while narrowing her eyes at Rin. After a few minutes of probably the world's creepiest staring contest, Rin lost her resilience and finally explained what happened. "Well then...care to tell me if her claim is true?" Chifuyu inquired while turning her head towards Arthur.

Arthur was about to answer, but the girl laying down next to him started to stir and wake up. She leaned forward, before peering around, so as to assess the situation she was in. Once she had however, she seemed to jump upward while straightening up once she saw Chifuyu. "G-g-good evening, ma'am." she stuttered while trying to raise a fake smile right off the bat. "Is there a problem here?" she asked with a slightly squeaky voice.

"Your roommate here, claims you were being kidnapped by this boy here. Is that true?" Chifuyu asked while she observed Arthur behind the girl.

The girl looked at him, over at Rin, and back to Chifuyu for a few moments until she suddenly burst out laughing. The laugh seemed to come out of nowhere, confusing everyone at what was going on. The girl seemed to catch her breath for a second while her mood changed quickly. "This boy...was just helping me back to my dorm. Weren't you?" She confirmed as she turned her head to look at his. Arthur seemed to cringe slightly, but reluctantly nodded, making Chifuyu think the girl probably made a scary face; her aura appeared to give off that feeling too. "Alright then, all of you, back into your rooms for the rest of the night!". The girls all started to groan loudly as they all made their way back into their rooms. When she turned to Rin though, she seemed to be frozen still in place. "You will apologize to your fellow IS classmate." Rin obeyed without question before she walked the other girl back into her room with her; leaving only Arthur and Chifuyu in the hallway. "You really are a handful you know that?" she commented with a frown. Arthur leaned his back on the wall and put his hands in his uniform's pockets. "I don't blame you for that accusation." he replied. Chifuyu could only sigh along with a small smile. "I think you and your new roommate will get along just fine." she said, which seemed to lift the boy's spirits. "Come on, I'll show you the way." and off they went.

* * *

Arthur tried to keep up with Chifuyu as they made their way down the hallways. After they had gone up to the 3rd floor of the building they arrived at a certain dorm room that read: 1025. Before Chifuyu could open it however, the door suddenly opened and out came the last person Arthur expected to see. Out popped Charlotte making her way out sadly, but stopped when she saw who was at the door. "M-M-Ms. Orimura?" she stuttered badly, thinking maybe she was in trouble. She turned to see Arthur himself as well, becoming very puzzled at the newly arrived guests.

Arthur decided to break the tension in the air and asked Chifuyu if that was his new room. She nodded in agreement, which prompted him to ask Charlotte why she seemed to be leaving. "I've been kicked out and moved to another room." She replied disappointingly. "I guess you're my replacement as a roommate. Have fun." she said while she slowly walked out and welcomed him in. _Greeeaaaatttt..._ Arthur thought to himself frowning. _Now I've ruined her day...well, I guess I should give it up to fate on this one...IT CAN GET WORSE!_ The guilt seemed to keep weighing down on him more and more as he slowly walked in and turned to see Ichika on the bed closest to the door. "Oh hey, Arthur so you're going to be my new roommate huh?" Arthur nodded in agreement while he walked over to the bed by the window. "Mind if I have this one?" He asked politely.

"Sure, no problem. Anyways, at least now you don't have to worry about changing in privacy eh Charlotte?"

She seemed agitated at the comment and walked out past Chifuyu only muttering one word: "Idiot" before slamming the door behind her, leaving Chifuyu with the 2 boys in the room.

"Ok, well we figured this would be the best way to go about it seeing as your both males. So Orimura, I want you to keep him up to date on any changes around here he isn't aware of yet and help show him around if need be...understand?"

"Yes ma'am of course."

"Good...then curfews in about 30 minutes. You two had best be getting ready for bed."

"No argument here." Arthur said as he raised his hand weakly while yawning. That caused both of them to chuckle slightly. "All right then you two get some sleep." Chifuyu said as she left with a huff.

Arthur laid back on his bed as he took in the look of the dorm room. In front of the beds was a huge light brown desk with two desktop computers and holo-keyboards on each end of it along with three story high cabinets filled with books he seemed interested in peeking at. To the right of that was a small sink and counter-top for making what he guessed was tea. The room's floor was covered in light purple carpeting and smelled as fresh as, from what he could re-call off the top of his head, his father's place during a dew-filled and sunny morning. His favorite part though, seemed to be the balcony outside on the left. _As long as I'm not right by the window, I won't be too frightened by the heights. _He thought happily.

"So Arthur... How did you enjoy your first day at this place?" Ichika inquired with a smile.

Arthur turned to look up at the ceiling, "Dude, I swear if I EVER made a list of rules to this place, the first rule I'd put down is survival."

This caused Ichika to laugh until he had to take a few moments to catch his breath. "I think I know what you mean by that, but why would it be the first rule?"

"Because if you can't survive, you can't make it through even one day" Arthur replied grinning confidently. "But seeing as I've made it, I think I can say I'll make it through the rest of the year" He added with a slight chuckle. "Though, I'm sure your days here are hectic as well."

"Oh, you have NO idea... every time I turn around, it seems as if one of the girls is grabbing for my attention. I can't ever figure out why either. Chifuyu always says I'm the kind of guy no girl would want, so since I see her as an expert in that area …I doubt that's the case."

Arthur's jaw seemed to drop hard. The longer he kept listening, the more he felt his IQ points dropping drastically fast. _So Japanese anime isn't that far off from reality after all..._ He put his hand to his forehead, as if he began having head pain. _This is going to be a fuuuuuuuuuuun time.._ he thought to himself as he kept listening to Ichika's story.


	4. You're not the only one

**Chapter 4: You're not the only one**

Arthur couldn't stop running. As the path before him kept getting thinner and thinner, he continued trying to run but the voices seemed to throw him back like massive shockwaves. _Why didn't you say good-bye? "Hey look, its the weak kid. Get em guys!" "You were always his favorite grandson.." the man said with a weak smile as he looked at the picture. "Even though you can't remember him... he'd be proud of you anyway." "Why can't I see her? Shes my grandma too!" "You can't...your too young for this kind of thing." Why must you hurt, yet care? Why must you lie, but yet be honest? Do you really care at all? What keeps you ticking? _Arthur grabbed his head and started shaking violently while screaming into the sky with tears streaming down his face. "SHUT UUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPP!" He kept yelling repeatedly until out of the blue, everything but the path vanished as he felt someone wrap their arms around his neck from behind. He then drooped his head and fell to his knees, as if all his strength had suddenly vanished. The person's hug felt comforting and safe as he laid his hands upon their own, it's very presence giving him the confidence to look forward towards the darkness. All he heard after that was a soft, sweet female voice."_**I am yours, and you are mine, and so I shall save you for the rest of all time.**_" The words pierced Arthur's ears with ease as he began to surrender himself to the voice, his face turning emotionless, until everything then suddenly rushed towards a bright light at the end of a tunnel; then Arthur suddenly woke up.

He began panting heavily before looking around to see the entire room. _That's right, I'm in the dorm room with Ichika...it was all just a dream._ He thought to himself and cupped his face with his hands. He looked at his cell phone on the stand next to him so he could look at the time: only 12:15. _I-I need some fresh air_ he decided as he put on some night-shoes before exiting the dorm room. _Unfortunately, the balcony outside the room is too small...guess that leaves the roof...fantastic._ He thought ironically. Arthur finally made it to the stairs and limped his way up them. _Worst part about waking up in the middle of the night...is the pain your body experiences. _He seemed to contemplate, annoyed by the very concept. Once he had made his way up to the top, he could feel the vertigo effect starting to kick in. _I'm not falling...the grounds not shaking. Tonight...you will not rule over me! _He thought to himself defiantly while he silently pushed open the door. _Why is it already unlocked?_ He thought for a moment before he noticed a shadow on the ground. His basic training instincts kicked in as he propped himself up against the wall. As he peered around slowly though, all he saw was a small girl in pink pajamas squatting near the edge and staring up at the full moon that had shown up tonight. _Hey, wait a minute that's the one who kicked me! Wonder whats bugging her?_ He looked around so as to assure himself that everything was okay, before he decided to approach her.

* * *

Rin had been miserable all day long, but she had hidden it well from the others. She didn't want to bother them with her own problems, so she had decided as early as the morning, that she would watch the full moon like she used to with her parents. Soon however, she noticed a shadow of someone approaching her and materialized her IS's right arm along with top half of her blade to ward off the intruder. When she turned to face whoever it was though, she stopped when she saw it was the boy from before. "What do you want?", she asked rudely at the same time as she de-materialized her IS. All the boy did was scratch his head while making a comical smile. "Well, I was just coming up for some fresh air and you happened to be here. Sorry if I scared you." Rin blushed slightly at the remark while making an aggressive stance. "I-I was not scared! I was only reacting as I've been trained to towards an intruder!" The boy however seemed to pay her no mind and walked over to the railing to sit down. She could tell he was shaking about something which made her curious as to what it was. When she realized though that she was the only one standing up, she turned around and sat back down where she was before. "So. Why are you up here?" The boy asked with a slightly nervous voice.

"I'm up here because I just felt like it." she replied with her face pointing upwards. The boy didn't seem to buy it though as he just blankly stared at her. "L-Look, don't stare at me or judge me! I-I was here first anyways!"

"What does being first up here have to do with anything?" the boy asked with a raised eyebrow.

This only made Rin madder as she she curled up like a ball while muttering things to herself. The boy himself seemed to stop paying attention and took in a deep breath of air. He appeared to be more relaxed now though, which made Rin feel just a pinch more comfortable as well.

"Hey"

"Yea?" he replied as he laid back on the roof.

"I-is your head feeling okay?"

"Yes, it's fine, but why would you- Oh, right the kick!" he seemed to suddenly regain his memory of the past few hours while making a hearty laugh, leaving Rin wondering if he was just stupid or forgetful.

"That's good to hear," She said with a smile as she looked at the ground, "What's your name anyway?"

"Nothing you should probably ever concern yourself over. However, if you must know just call me Arthur."

"Well, why shouldn't I concern myself over it? It'd be nice to know your name so I have something to call you by right?"

"A name to call me by? I was under the impression your version of [Hello] was just a kick to the face." He made a gentle laugh upon finishing the joke while looking over at her. "What about you?"

"My name's Hingyin Luang. However, my closer friends just call me Rin." she said confidently.

"Well that first name's a mouthful so I don't blame em. How about I just call you Rin as well?" he inquired.

"Just what is that supposed to mean?!" she asked angrily, before Arthur gave her a simple wave back while laughing to himself.

"I'm only joking, Rin," he replied happily. This made her blush a little as she look away furiously.

"I'm starting to think you just came up here to mess with me," she muttered to herself and closed her eyes.

"Actually, I couldn't sleep and figured I could use some fresh air; so I came up here", Arthur replied with a relaxed tone in his voice.

Rin's head popped back up, filled with curiosity. "O-oh, was it a nightmare or something?"

Arthur then made a deep sigh, his face becoming contorted at the mention of it. _Yep, had to be a nightmare_ Rin confirmed to herself. "Tell me Rin. Have you ever had something happen to you that you feel was all your fault, yet had no control over?" Arthur started to stretch his hand out as if to try and grasp the moon itself.

Rin was slightly thrown back by the sudden serious change in his mood. "W-well" she stuttered . "If you're going to go into that territory...yes, I have actually." This appeared to make Arthur quite interested in her as he turned his head to face her with a curious aura around him. _Why are you looking at me like that?...Idiot. _She took a deep sigh. _He's just like Tina described after all..._

"Whats your story then?" Arthur asked, interrupting Rin's thoughts. Rin, having been suddenly thrown back into reality, looked around nervously; so as to make sure nobody else was listening to their conversation.

"Well, you see... Before I became China's representative IS pilot. I used to live here in this town with Ichika and a few other of his friends."

Arthur chuckled slightly, making Rin seem flustered. "So, you were the childhood friend huh?" he breathed softly, so he could relax and catch his breath. " Must've been a fun time, I'm assuming?" He added with a pondering look in his eyes.

"Yea, it was probably the best times of my life so far." She started to trail off into thought, reminiscing about her childhood, until that one memory came up and she seemed to curl back up again, trying to sniff silently so he wouldn't hear.

"Hmm? Something wrong Rin?"

"N-no, its nothing." she said with a pinch of annoyance.

"Rin..."

"I said its nothing!" she yelled out and leered at him with tearful eyes. Arthur's face suddenly changed to a serious one as he got up and sat next to her. "Tell me all about it. What happened?" he asked with a concerned look. Rin was taken aback by the sudden close proximity of the two, coupled with the awkwardness of the situation, she decided to finally give up resisting; it was too late to hide anything anyway. "Well, hasn't it struck you odd that I'm from China currently, yet I say I used to live here?"

"It does somewhat, but I assume you just moved right?"

"That's true. However, there was something that happened back then that made me take that extreme course of action."

"And what exactly was that?"

"My parents you see, they used to own and operate a Chinese food restaurant together here. Ichika would always come over and have dinner there and that's how we met." She started to smile softly at the memory of Ichika, it always seemed to bring her mind at ease whenever things got at their worst. "Over time though, they started arguing a lot, sometimes even breaking into small fights. Eventually, they got a divorce and decided to hide it from their neighbors by shutting down the restaurant out of the blue. So, with the life I knew in shambles, and my way of talking with Ichika alone gone, I moved back to my homeland of China to start a new life. Before I knew it, I had scored high enough on my IS aptitude test for the guys at the top to notice me. And so, here I am." she ended with a flail of the arms.

She could see Arthur was processing all that had just been told to him; however instead of trying to reassure her to make her feel better like she expected, he only petted her head softly and got a depressed look of his own as he kept staring at the moon. "You're not the only one" he said with a deep sigh. Rin could only gaze upon him with a surprised face. Usually the people she knew would either tell her_ "It's nothing you should worry over"_ or _"I'm sorry"_ , but such empathetic actions never seemed to get through to her. "W-What do you mean?" she wondered nervously. Arthur then curled up his legs and folded his arms around them. "Why don't I tell you a story?" he asked with a weak smile.


	5. The Blue Flash

**Chapter 5: The Blue Flash**

Tina was really excited after she had made a stop at the mail room of the academy before going to class. _It finally arrived! I'm sure he'll be sooo surprised to see it_ she giggled to herself softly. _I'll wait until lunch to show him. That way we can spend some time together afterwords. _She began to break into a fantasizing role as she laid her head down on her desk and began to daydream. Within moments however, the morning bell rung which forced her back into reality. After being disappointed by her interrupted dream, she peered over at the desk to her right that was empty. Curiously, she looked around everywhere to see if she could spot the occupant. _Wonder where Rin is? It's not like her to be late at all. _As if on cue, Rin came dragging herself into the room, her eyes barely open with rings below them. _Ohhhh boy... _Tina shook her head in disappointment. Rin kept making a silent moaning sound as she waddled over to her desk, the other girls in the room eye-ing her silently.

Once she sat down, Rin's head began to turn slowly towards Tina, with a sound reminiscent of metal scraping against metal. "Your boyfriend's quite the storyteller" she whispered with a flimsy grin and collapsed her head on her desk. Tina could only gasp at the notion before darting her eyes back and forth. _What does she mean? What happened last night that I apparently missed? _She worried to herself. Just then, the teacher came in and started class. Tina decided to put the thought at the back of her mind until she would meet with Arthur again.

* * *

Houki kept looking out the window to her left. Her desk was at the front row at the end on the left, so naturally it wasn't exactly hard for her to be able to see outside. She would always enjoy these moments before class started, the mood of the weather outside seemed to always determine hers as well. Though, due to kendo practice early in the mornings she already had an idea of what it was like outside . _I wonder whats taking Ichika so long to get into class today? _She thought to herself. She waved it off however, thinking maybe she was worrying too much over something so trivial. When she looked over at the entrance though, she saw Ichika with Arthur walking in, both seeming to be in good moods. Arthur however, looked like he had lost some sleep last night. _Probably had a late conversation. _She made a small smile when she looked at Ichika. _Of course, with Ichika it's easy to lose track of time _she concluded with a weak smile. Once they finished talking, Arthur started to ease his way to his desk at the back of the room. Houki could tell though, that he'd probably not last much longer, until he would fall asleep. The morning bell rung then, and she turned her head to face the teacher, ready to get through the day.

Arthur could barely keep his eyes awake after two hours into the lecture. _Why did I do this to myself? It almost hurts to keep them open. Note to self, when telling a story...keep it minimal. _He noted instantaneously. He started to remember back to last night, when after his story, Rin seemed to feel a lot better and left him up there to go to sleep. _At least that's one soul I can help...always makes me feel better when I prevent someone from becoming like me... nobody deserves that fate._ He thought while his head collapsed onto his desk, his thoughts echoing throughout his mind as his eyes closed shut, as the voices outside seemed to fade away. The silent darkness was suddenly interrupted by a hard bash to his head and he woke up, only to be staring Chifuyu straight in the face. His stomach started to curl, while his legs shook from the overwhelming negative intent he sensed in the air. Chifuyu made an evil grin as she looked down upon him, her eyes filled with that same crimson red color as before. "Oh, I know just what to do with you." she snickered. "I want you to run 10 laps around the school while in a Training IS. No thrusters or PIC to help you out. Understand?" she said with a commanding voice. Arthur slowly got up and began sulking out of the room. "Roger that, ma'am." he replied depressingly before exiting the room.

* * *

Once the lunch bell rang, Cecilia decided to get up after the majority of people had left the classroom, and walked over to Ichika. "Excuse me, Ichika dear, but I wanted to see if you would to try a new dish I made today" she offered with a sweet smile. "Sure, but I'd rather go check on how Arthur's doing before I get lunch. I promised him I'd help him out if he fell asleep" he replied with a half-hearted grin.

"The guy KNEW he'd fall asleep?" Houki asked as she made her way over. "Sounds like he's just trying to use you to help ease the pain."

"Nah, he's a good guy once you get to know him" Ichika replied happily before taking a deep breath. "Well, I'll see you all in the cafeteria I suppose." Right before he left though, he saw Charlotte was following him as well. "I'm interested to see how he's doing with his punishment as well" she said with her signature smile. _Hmph I may as well go also. It'll be nice to see that self-righteous brat get what he deserves _she imagined devilishly. Rin suddenly appeared in the doorway before Ichika could leave and scanned the area to see if she could spot someone. "Where's Arthur?" she asked out of the blue. _Why is everyone suddenly interested in the new boy? I thought we were paying him no mind_ she scoffed with intense displeasure. It was only when she saw the blonde-haired girl from yesterday, that she realized the reason behind Rin's sudden interest. _Another quarrel I see? This should be good._ "Oh, he got in trouble with Chifuyu, so he's out running laps around the school in a training IS." The silence that followed was interrupted by the girl, whom Cecilia remembered Rin called Tina, sighing heavily and shaking her head. "Yea, that boy can be troublesome. I better go as well to make sure he's alright." she added with an annoyed tone. "Oh? Sounds like you two have a history Ms...?"

"It's Tina. Tina Hamilton." she responded with a gracious smile, her jade-colored eyes appearing to shine in the sunlight.

"Ah, R-right. Tina, it's nice to meet you" Ichika said in his usual polite demeanor. "Then let's get going, shall we?" he motioned towards the door and off the 4 went, leaving Cecilia, Houki, and Laura alone in the room with an unusual tension in the air. Before long, Cecilia found herself leaving the room as quickly as possible, seeing as she couldn't wait to see the tired and defeated look on Arthur's face.

* * *

Chifuyu had decided to see how many laps Arthur had completed. Once she got outside though, she could tell right away where he had run due to the tracks left behind by the IS's feet. _Looks like he's already done 5 laps, according to the patterns of these tracks...I'm impressed...the boy may be trying after all._ She thought to herself with a confident attitude. She remembered how when she had looked up his dossier, it showed that Arthur's main problem was a lack of motivation, but since a certain classified event, that had all but disappeared. Since then, it looked like he had done everything with a fiery purpose. She could tell that especially by the look of determination that never seemed to leave his eyes. She laughed to herself about him. _The kid reminds me a lot of myself when I was his age... Lets just hope though, he doesn't make the same mistakes I made back then. _She began to re-call the events of 10 years ago. The hacking of every country's defense network that caused 2,341 missiles to come hurling towards Japan. She could still remember the cold sweat she had broken into before boarding the first ever fully complete Infinite Stratos unit: The Shirokishi. _Things have certainly calmed down a lot since then of course, however Japan's situation couldn't be worse._ Her expression became overcome with gloom at the thought of it all. _After the IS was shown to the world, and the core's distributed, Japan was blamed for the creation of it, and thus had to bear all of the problems that came with that accusation. _She observed her surroundings carefully while capturing every detail about the academy's layout. _They were forced to build this academy to help train IS pilots all over the world, yet are the only ones who maintain or pay for anything that goes on here._ She finished with a heavy sigh and re-gained her natural commanding aura once she saw Arthur rounding the corner in a training IS. Chifuyu then, put her hand up so as to signal "stop" and Arthur came crashing down onto the ground once he reached her, his breathing heavy, yet raspy at the same time. "Y-yes, Miss Orimura?" he panted out, almost feeling like he'd lost his breath for a second. "Get up. You're not already tired, are you? Your other classmates could do the 10 laps no problem."

"Whatever you say, chief," he said with a chuckle, but minced in pain since it hurt to laugh.

She could only scoff at his remark as she knelt down beside him. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something in private, if you don't mind." Arthur's eyes started to dart back and forth, his curiosity having been piqued. "And just what is that?" he asked with a weak grin. "I've read your dossier, and I have to admit I'm rather impressed with what I've read. Also...what does the name RION mean to you?" Arthur's eyes suddenly fully awakened, his body becoming much more tense than before as he gritted his teeth to calm his breathing pattern. "What do you know about RION?!" he asked, his temper beginning to flare intensely. "You'd better cool off first before we talk," she commented while offering him a bottled water from her left hand. "Drink up, and meet me in the IS hangar where you found that model. We have much to discuss," she finished and left him alone, as she had begun to notice a crowd had begun to form, waiting for him to be free of impediments. _It's time I learn your secret, Arthur Stone. What exactly is it that made you betray everything you ever knew?_ she pondered deeply as she strode off towards the hangar.

* * *

Charlotte had been surprised to see that Instructor Orimura had beaten them all out to where Arthur was running. It made her giggle though when she saw Arthur "plop" down onto the ground upon stopping. _As serious as the guy is, he almost seems like a class clown at times_ she almost couldn't stop giggling silently at the thought, until Rin looked at her questionably. "What's so funny Charlotte?"

"Oh, n-nothing. Nothing at all. Just a funny memory," she lied before quietly re-gaining herself and straightened up once more. She noticed though, that Tina seemed distressed at something, her hand gripping her chest tightly. _Maybe she overheard them talking about something? I hope it's nothing major..._ she walked over at touched Tina's shoulder gently. "Everything okay? You seem distraught." Tina turned and looked back with what Charlotte could tell was a very fake smile as everyone suddenly turned their attentions towards her. "It's nothing really" she answered quickly. "I'm just feeling a little winded is all," she said while giggling awkwardly. Charlotte then grabbed her hand as they saw Chifuyu walk away from Arthur, leaving him alone as he dowsed himself with water he poured over his head. "Well, lets go see him then. I'm sure it'll make you feel better," Charlotte commented with a happy face and dragged Tina along with her.

* * *

Arthur looked over and appeared to change his expression to his usual happy one once he slowly got up, his body towering over them while he was still in the IS. "What's up guys?" he said as he knelt down, so as to not seem intimidating at all. "Oh, we just all came to see how you were doing," Ichika answered. "Though it seems like you got to finish early. Never heard of Chifuyu going soft on someone like that, consider yourself lucky man."

"I intend to," Arthur answered with a confident grin as he de-materialized the IS down into its stand-by sword form and the two Hi-fived each other. _Huh...glad to see those two already getting along._ Charlotte thought surprised. _Though really, it seems like everyone gets along with Ichika so it's not too hard to believe._ She finished with a slight blush on her face when Ichika's name entered her thoughts. "A-Arthur?" Tina's voice seemed to come out of nowhere, even though it was obvious she had been there the entire time. She held out a small black box cupped in her hands towards him. "T-this is for you...I thought maybe you'd want something to call your own here, so I called the old base we used to be at and had them deliver this" she said, her face blushing intensely. "What is it?" he asked curiously. "It's a surprise" she said with a cute smile, Charlotte being happy to see her cheering up. Everyone started to crowd around Arthur though when he opened the box slowly, and inside was a black leather digital watch with angel wing emblems along the sides of the glass that covered the clock part of the watch itself. "Aw, no way!" Arthur seemed to be very excited once he saw the watch. "You got them to send me my old Striker unit?!" he looked at Tina with a happy, surprised face to which she simply nodded. "It was tough and I had to pull a few strings, but I thought maybe you'd want something you could use" she replied. Arthur then stabbed the sword into the ground where it would stay level, and put the watch on. He kept turning his arm around, gazing at the watch, as if transfixed by it. "It's been so long... I can't believe I'm laying eyes on it again. Thanks Tina, I really appreciate it!" Arthur started to almost show the attributes of a little kid who had just gotten a new toy for Christmas, with everyone starting to laugh at the child-ish nature he displayed. _Underneath that tough exterior of his...he's just like the rest of us after all. Just trying to make his place in the world. _Charlotte contemplated to herself, relaxed by the entire situation.

"S-so...Arthur...Would you want to maybe...train with me?" Tina asked as she leaned around nervously, Charlotte finding the endeavor sort of cute.

"Ah, I'd love to, but I've got a prior engagement to get to. I promise we'll try later ok?" he finished before they both hugged each other tightly, shocking everyone around them but Rin in the process. They both looked at each other, then at everyone else with confused faces as they held each others hand. "Hmmm? What's wrong guys?" Arthur asked, his eyes darted back from Charlotte all the way to Ichika.

"A-are you two...together?" Cecilia blurted out while pointing at the two of them, her posture in total disbelief. Arthur then looked back to Tina.

"Oh, that's right! I never did tell you did I, Ichika?" he asked with a small laugh and an apologizing face. "Yea, we've been together for around...4 months I'd say. Isn't that about right?" he asked as he looked towards Tina. Her face had become somewhat agitated now though, with her looking at him with a small hint of contempt. "And here I thought your memory had finally improved, you can't even remember how long we've been together?"

"S-sorry, it just escapes me at the worst of times," he replied with a half-baked smile while scratching his head.

"A-anyways, I'll tell you the rest later tonight if you want Ichika, I need to get going." He started to run off before realizing something. "Oh wait DUH! I have this now!" he looked down at his new watch and held it out in front of his body. "I summon thee! Gabriel Striker!" he yelled and through a sequence of events the IS fully materialized around him. It was a dark blue IS that seemed to resemble Charlotte's own custom Raphael Revive in many aspects, however the shield was grafted onto the left arm, with what seemed like a small slot at the end for either a gun or a sharp weapon. Its legs and arms on the other hand, were more streamlined and seemed to add the effect that the body flowed together like a river. The back though, was what looked to be the location of all its power as there were several thrusters clustered in the middle attached to the underside of what looked like a square-shaped metal backpack with 2 intricately designed multi-thrusters attached to the shoulders that looked more stream-lined than her own.

"See ya later guys!" he yelled as he pulled the sword from the ground and lifted off. The clustered thrusters in the back suddenly ignited as well as Arthur took off towards the hangars. "And there goes the Blue Flash," Tina added with a bright smile. ""Blue Flash?"" they all asked in unison. "Mhm. That was his nickname. Mine was The Black Barrel, and together we made up the High Aces team within the American Military!" she posed as if in a heroic state of mind. All they could manage was to silently process everything that had just gone on, since to them, picturing someone like Arthur as an ace pilot was a hard thing to do. "Whats your IS' name then?" Ichika asked outright. Tina looked at him with a cheerful response in mind, but only made a suggestive wink. "You'll have to see us practice to find out" she added with a grin before she began to skip her way back into the academy. As Charlotte looked at everyone else though, she could tell that they had a lot to understand suddenly while they all began marching on their way to the cafeteria.

* * *

Once Arthur had made it to the hangars, he landed his IS' feet on the ground gently. _Whew ...haven't flown an IS in a long time. Gonna have to get used to being high up again. _He figured while proceeding towards the #2 hangar. Once he got close to the building, the door had a camera above that scanned him and spoke out his identification then proceeded to split open the doors so he could enter. Upon entering though, Arthur saw that Chifuyu was waiting in the middle of the hangar doing what looked like training with a sword that looked just a tad too big for her, even so she still swung it with excellent grace and power. The inside of the hangar was almost identical to that of an aircraft one, the size had been decreased dramatically though since IS' could stay in a compact form. The only noticeable feature was the wall of latches that formed a single line throughout the walls of the complex, each latch holding swords identical to the one in his hand. "Ah, there you are..." her voice started to trail off for a second. "What is that you're using?" she asked, referring to the IS that engulfed Arthur's body.

"Oh, it's just a memento from a close friend...nothing special" he replied nonchalantly before de-materializing it back into standby mode. Arthur walked over to the rack slot that read 201 and placed the sword in the locks, watching carefully as the latches locked tightly into place

. "So" his personality seemed to take a dark turn, morphing from a happy go lucky person, to someone who took things much more seriously. "How much do you know about RION?" he asked as he turned to face Chifuyu. When he looked around though, he saw she had already finished as well as waiting at a door on the opposite side of the hangar. She motioned her hand to signal him to come in, and so he did. Once they both got in, she sat down in a office chair with Arthur sitting opposite of her on a small couch. The room looked like a observation room, to which Arthur just silently assumed it was for the security guard to watch over. "In here, we won't be recorded on cameras, so you can fully express yourself in this room." she said quickly. She then turned the seat to look at the various security camera angles before she began her response. "What I know so far, is that you seem to have a particularly strange relationship with this RION. One that even made you turn your back on your comrades and fight against an entire battalion of them as well as an allied IS representative." Her words pierced Arthur's heart easily, once he began re-calling the memories of that event; he could still remember the anxiety he felt as the missiles exploded around him and his former comrades using everything they had to stop him from escaping. His mind however, started to focus on the object he kept held in his arms, the main objective, the reason why he had done everything, then suddenly his mind shifted back to the current reality, leaving him half-woozy. "So you read about the incident then... and now you see why it seemed like they just threw me out and sent me over here right?" he looked at her curiously, wondering how she'd respond to having a former fugitive as a student.

"Precisely. Since someone with your mindset wouldn't betray trusted allies so easily, it struck me as odd that you would ever take such action. So I would like to hear your side of the story," she declared while turning in her the chair to point directly at him. "I also saw that you and that girl from last night happen to have a relationship going on. Is she aware of this RION person as well?"

"Yes. She knows RION just as well as I do."

"So what kind of relationship do you two have to RION?" she asked curiously as she leaned her head on her arm while crossing her legs.

Arthur looked down dejectedly. "Where to even begin..." he laughed at himself weakly as he cupped his hands around his face and pulled back his hair for a moment. He then took a deep breath as he raised his head to show Chifuyu a sorrowful, yet broken look that appeared to hide a tragic secret. "Well, for starters... RION... is the name we gave to our daughter."


	6. Sins of the past

**Chapters 6: Sins of the Past**

Houki was very nervous with Laura following her into the cafeteria and to the spot the group normally sat at. _I can't trust her yet...just a week ago she was trying to kill Ichika and now all of a sudden shes nice! I have to keep my guard up... in case she tries anything funny. _Houki narrowed her eyes and could tell Laura sensed her negativity in the air. "You know, you don't have to be so worried... I'm only here awaiting my bride, not to harm you in anyway." she stated calmly.

"J-j-just wait a minute there! No one said I was worried...and besides he is not your bride!" Houki yelled, blushing intensely.

"You really shouldn't work yourself up so much Ms. Shinonono. I hear it is bad for your skin," she replied with a slight chuckle.

_Why you..._ Houki balled her hand into a fist. _Your lucky I don't have a personal IS of my own or I'd clobber you! _Houki then took a deep breath and quietly sat back down with her usual scowling face. She was relieved however to see Ichika finally walk in, despite there appearing to be a new girl in his midst. _It's that blonde one from before... Wonder why she's still with them? _Yet as fast as she appeared, the mystery girl left their group and ventured off on her own, her face looking more cheered up than before. _What's she so cheerful about?_ She pondered as everyone sat down around her and Laura.

"So, who is my new rival?" Laura asked out of the blue, creating an awkward tension in the air.

"W-what do you mean rival? She's just a close friend of Arthur's," Ichika replied nervously. _As usual, our newest member of this strange group makes it even harder to have a normal conversation... _Houki thought in dismay.

"Huh...and here I thought nobody knew the guy," Houki scoffed while continuing to eat. "Actually she's his girlfriend," Cecilia added with a smile, resulting in Houki spitting out her food in surprise. "Sh-she's his what?!"

* * *

Arthur tried to gather his thoughts together since he could tell Chifuyu was quite taken aback by what he had just said. "You're telling me you two are only 15 years old...and you've already had a kid, correct?"

"Y-yes and no," Arthur retorted. He gathered his thoughts while trying to stay on track. "RION... is an A.I. I created. It stands for the Retro-active Inertial Online Navigator. I had decided to make an A.I. For my own personal machine so I'd be able to adapt the systems and weapons better to different scenarios. Unfortunately, one day she asked a question I would've never seen coming..." and thus, his hidden memories began flowing back to him, even though he wished they wouldn't, as he started his tale.

_It was one of the most nerve-wracking moments of my life...but also one of the very few where I had found my own salvation. I had finally created something of my own, that I could be proud of. When she said those very words, "Why do I exist?" my world changed forever. Even though I explained her functionality and core programming, she didn't accept it. A event that should have been impossible for an A.I. that was only supposed to follow commands. I began bringing her e-book files that she could read so she could learn about the world and even the universe around her. She was always so fascinated by the tales of angels though. I remember one day, she asked me if I would build her a body one day so she could fly the skies with me... and I agreed almost instantly. Tina had already met her by then as well, and always spent time reading her stories as well as telling her of her own life. RION always loved listening to Tina, as I'm sure she enjoyed always making new friends. She was the perfect example of a child who had been cooped up inside a house for 10 years, then suddenly let outside. I was so proud to call her my equivalent of a daughter... It was that day she asked for a body though, that I swore to myself that no matter what she would never be used for combat purposes ... __unfortunately, the US government and their IS division had other plans..._

_Once Tina got sent here 2 months before I could be, I was always alone with RION. Unfortunately in this world...it seems the better you are, the more isolated you become... a fact I've become all too familiar with. However, just waking up to her voice was more than enough for me. Her body, her very gospel to the world, was nearing completion... I was getting closer and closer to making her wish come true. I would soar through the skies alongside my daughter... and show the world below that I existed, and that I was here now. Fate on the other hand, had different plans in store for me. When they started taking over the project, I couldn't stop them, but I accepted it at first. Once I saw what it was becoming though, I realized they were only going to use her as just another advantage over the other countries. I was not going to let my daughter be used like that... so I ran. Biggest mistake of my life..._

_ They chased after me with at least 15 different mass-produced IS' for around 20 hours before SHE appeared. Iris Calling, the national IS rep. for America, had been waiting in an ambush position. I put up a fight as much as I could, but I was drained out... I had nowhere to run to, my family had been scattered thanks to my being an IS pilot, and I was all alone...I could tell though she never wanted to put me down, but knew she had no choice. I never hated her for it, not once... That look in her eyes was more than enough proof for me to see what was going on. _

_ After that, they took away my IS and RION and had me chained to a wall in a dungeon-like cell for 3 and a half weeks. They rarely gave me food or water to stay alive...the only thing that kept me going...was that maybe I could see Tina and RION again. That somehow, someway I'd make it out of there. Then the military trial came, and I was summoned up to the stand alongside RION. They had found out that all of my ideas, designs, and even theories were inside her. So they offered to exchange me my freedom and family; for the password. Being cooped up in a cell however makes you start to hate everyone and want to lash out, so of course I lied about the password. When it didn't work they threw me up against the wall and were about to execute me right there...until she spoke, for the first time since I had tried my failed escape. Her very words still haunt me to this day...__** "I shall do as you command General, however if harm should come to the ones I deem to be my father or my mother as well...I shall not hesitate in detonating myself and every known IS within a 25 mile radius...and that includes my body as well. With that, you will lose any advantage you could possibly have for most likely the next few decades...so what will it be General? Will you kill my father in cold blood, thus killing yourself and dooming your country as well as your career? Or will you give into my demands...and Let. Him. Go? **__I had to admit myself even I was shaking in my boots, I knew that tone of voice and could sense she was serious. They really had no choice but to give into her demands at that point...My sentence though, was severe. _**You are hereby exiled from this country! You shall also be forbidden from tampering with any kind of US property, whether it be an IS or a citizen of ours. We shall send you to the IS Academy as per the AI's request...after that, you're on your own. You got lucky traitor, damn lucky.** _And as they drug me out those 2 doors, blocking RION from me forever, my spirit forever marked and broken ...there was only 1 thing I could do. I burst through the doors, my captors barely holding onto me, and I spoke to her one last time_. **RION! I want you to listen at me!**_ As her shocked face gazed upon me, I could only say one last thing to her..._** I promise, someday soon, even if it's years from now... I WILL save you from this! Just you wait...WAIT FOR ME!** _What stopped my blood-lust filled rage though, was a sight that still blows my mind to this day. She shed a tear... an AI shed a tear... while she showed her warm smile one last time, the doors separated me from her once again. She believed in me, and so I came here, hoping I could make a machine that can give me the power to get her back. I won't target anyone, I only want __my daughter back... I've lost one family already, and I damn sure don't want to lose another one!_

* * *

Chifuyu leaned back in her chair and watched as Arthur cringed about before tears started falling down his face. "You're a pitiful sight you know. Bawling like that will get you nowhere, and it won't help you get anywhere near closer to your goal." She got up and started to make some coffee while Arthur tried to sniffle silently as well as wipe away his tears. "Do you want some by any chance?"

"No, I hate coffee, but I appreciate it."

"So, do you HAVE an idea for a machine by any chance?"

"Just one, but it seems slightly unrealistic." Arthur then dug through his front pocket until he brought out a crumpled piece of paper and set it on the table in front of him. Chifuyu walked over to unfold the paper so she could see what was inside. "Well, I could see why you would think that way. This design is very far off from any IS I've ever seen; And what's this thing on its back?"

Arthur looked down in shame, knowing the truth was hard to accept and sighed heavily. "It's a prototype power source. It uses solar energy and harnesses it as an infinite fuel source you could say."

Chifuyu started to suddenly take a larger interest in the picture as a whole once she heard that. "Hmm, something of this undertaking would require only the best of the best IS mechanics and designers. Yet with the US blocking you at every turn nowadays, you find yourself helpless and alone against the world, am I correct?" she inquired, while scanning the rest of the design. Arthur then got up and started to go towards the door.

"If you're only talking now just to make fun of me, I'm out of here.." He began to open the door, until she grabbed his arm forcefully.

"I'm saying the only person I could think of to do this is someone of the highest caliber, perhaps Tabane Shinonono, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, but what are the chances of her knowing of it, much less willing to help a nobody like myself?" he replied as he kept staring off into space.

"What would you say if... maybe I could pull a few strings, and maybe, just maybe; give you the chance you're looking for?"

Arthur's head suddenly perked up and glared over at Chifuyu. "This better not be a joke. I know what the impossible sounds like and this is sounding very much so. I am aware like most governments are that you were childhood friends with the scientist herself, I doubt however you'd risk revealing her location so easily even if you wish to contact her."

Chifuyu only laughed softly before going to get her coffee. "Kid, if there's one thing you need to learn now. It's that Tabane is anything but discreet. Trust me, if it piques her interest enough, then she'll make the trip for it."

"If you think it will, then by all means be my guest to try. Anyways, I need to get going. I have lunch to eat." Before he could leave though, Chifuyu stopped him for one last second.

"By the way, I forgot to tell you, you're going to be running around again like before for using an IS on academy grounds without permission," she grinned and walked out in front of him. Arthur staggered back slightly, until he decided to catch up with her.

"Oh come on! I can't tell if you're trying to help me or kill me!" he whined as they left the hangar.

* * *

Tina had been waiting in another part of the cafeteria for Arthur. She figured that he wouldn't be long, but it had already been 2 hours. _Idiot... He knows it's bad manners to keep a girl waiting _she pouted to herself. She saw him finally round the corner though, almost out of breath, and watched as he collapsed into his chair. She peered in closer as he lay his head back, before slightly poking his chest. "What happened to you?"

"Lets... just say... I'm in trouble again," he spat out with a weak smile.

"AGAIN?! Why is it wherever you go, you get into trouble? I swear sometimes I should just put a leash on you so I can keep watch," she exclaimed and crossed her arms agitatedly.

Arthur only chuckled as he leaned forward onto the table. "Knowing you, you'd probably like that though. You've always been the controlling type when it comes to these situations," he grinned.

Tina scoffed and closed her eyes to only show Arthur a scowl. "You're one to talk, mister I-Always-Have-The-Answer."

Arthur could only sigh while leaning back in response. "Well, now that that's all out of the way, what's say we get down to business."

This got Tina to open her eyes curiously. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I saw how you looked at me out there. You were giving me that distressed look. Was it the scar on my chest?" Arthur asked as he gave her a serious look.

_Why is it you're always able to read people, even myself with such ease? You've rarely had people around you, or people to hold you up after all that's happened in your life, and yet you analyze them as if you've seen it all before... _Tina began forming a slightly distressed look before she finally took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. "Yes, but I can already guess how it got there. It's from the incident, isn't it?"

Arthur leaned in and dimmed his voice down slightly. "How much did they tell you?"

"Only enough to know you were acting out of line. Damn it Arthur, I thought you knew better than that. Just because you're an IS pilot doesn't mean you can do whatever it is you want, and you've always had that problem."

"I've always told you, I'd rather be an eagle than a sheep. At least from up high, you can see what really goes on."

"Say's the guy with a fear of heights."

Arthur stopped there a moment and Tina felt remorseful as she knew that was a tough subject with him. "Look, I know I'm weak, I don't need you to tell me that. I also regret my course of action in that scenario. It wasn't something I would normally do. However... for RION I'd do it all over again, if it meant that there was even a slim chance in hell that I could get her away."

Tina then stood up and slammed her hands on the table. "What does RION even have to do with this?!"

"EVERYTHING!" Arthur yelled out loud, but stopped when he realized everyone was looking at them. When Tina peered in closer though, she noticed his eyes suddenly had a streak of horror dashed across them, and began darting back and forth rapidly. His breathing even started increasing dramatically, giving her deep concern. "A-Arthur, are you okay?" she asked as she got up to try and comfort him. He only clenched his teeth in response and looked around hastily, before covering his face with his right hand again and ran off down the hallway. "A-Arthur wait!"

* * *

Arthur felt his stomach tighten as well as his breathing become raspy as he kept running, the voices in his head beginning to overwhelm his psyche. _I know what I saw in the cafeteria...those damn tiger stripes...and that voice. Why is she here; And in her IS of all things?! It doesn't make any sense! _As he rounded a corner though, a voice he knew all too well made him freeze where he stood, his whole body almost felt as if all his strength had left him. "_Father... Why did you leave me? Why did you leave me to die?" _He shook his head and tried to make it the bathroom around the next corner before he saw the stripes flash past him again. In his frenzied state, he suddenly materialized his right arm along with an SMG to try and follow its movements. He pointed towards the windows, then the plants, plus even the paintings on the walls before finally pushing himself back up against the wall, his mind in agony as the voices persisted him to no end. "_They're hurting me father! Why did you leave me here?!... Did you not care about me?" _Suddenly, a face began forming in the reflection of the glass, a young woman's face who resembled Tina, but had his eyes and nose, stared at him with a pitiful look on it's face. "_Why..." _"N-no, stay back..." "_Why did you..." _"I said stay back!" he yelled while he shook his head in horror. Suddenly the face's voice took an almost demonic tone and glared at him in anger. "_WHY DID YOU ABANDON ME?!"_

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" screaming at the top of his lungs, Arthur prepared to pull the trigger before someone tackled him to the ground. When he regained his senses after a brief relapse, all he saw was Tina and Charlotte overlooking him, their faces covered with a worrisome aura. He felt his breathing finally return to normal, the voices thinning out to where he could hear them clearly.

"What in the hell were you thinking?! Pointing a gun like that on school property.." Tina shouted at him. "You could've hurt somebody!" She stopped though when Charlotte put her hand on her shoulder and smiled, making Tina feel more at ease. Arthur however, could feel the tears passively falling down his face. _Why? Why must I go through this? Why can't they just leave me alone... all these damn memories, and now these visions and voices in my head... It has to end. _Both of the girls looked back down to him though while offering their hands to him. He grabbed hold and let them help pull him up, his back feeling as if he had just slept on a sharp rock. "So... Which one of you was it that hit me down?" he asked with a disgruntled voice as he stretched out. Charlotte happily raised her hand in response while Tina tried to dry Arthur's tears with a handkerchief. Arthur waved off her hand stating he was alright before wiping his face with his hands. "Something I should be concerned about?" Charlotte asked with an innocent look. "You always seem to be there when I need someone. You following me or something?" Arthur asked blankly. Charlotte turned light-red at the remark but denied it, saying she had been in the bathroom and while she was walking back had seen Arthur freaking out. "I just thought something was wrong... and then when I saw you pull that gun and yell, I had to stop you."

"Actually that's what I wanna know as well, what set you off like that?" Tina inquired with a scowl as she folded her arms. Arthur looked back at the windows to see his own reflection once again. _That face though... I won't be able to sleep for the next few nights, that's for sure._ He shook his head to clear his head and started to walk away. "It's nothing, I'm just losing some sleep is all." Before he could get away however, Tina grabbed his hand firmly while giving him that angry frown of hers. "There's more to it than that, do you and I need to have a talk? You've been acting strange ever since you arrived. You're not like you were before." Charlotte started edging away, before she decided to get in-between the two of them to try and settle the situation. "Actually, I find IS sparring matches to be quite helpful in relieving stress. Why don't we all go give it a shot, yes?" She looked at the two of them and after a short moment of silence they let out heavy sighs before nodding in agreement. "Very good," she said and clapped her hands happily together. "Now just let me and Ms. Tina change first, then we'll wait out in the arena for you okay Arthur?"

"But of course, take your time," he teased with a happy grin. "I need some fresh air anyways," and off the three went. Arthur however, kept his guard up in case that face decided to reappear once more.

* * *

_Hope Cecilia doesn't mind me leaving early for practice before she gets there... _Ichika thought to himself. He knew that everyone would be so focused on seeing what Arthur and Tina were up to that maybe he could even skip practice today. _A day off wouldn't be so bad come to think of it... I could just enjoy the nice summer breeze. _He grinned to himself as he pictured the smooth running river and the trees moving just right with the wind. _Paradise... _He was about to start turning around until he heard a voice he didn't expect to hear. "Hey Ichika, What are you doing out here by yourself?" Arthur yelled over to him. Ichika turned to see Arthur approaching him as well as Charlotte and Tina. "W-wait a minute, weren't you just running from the cafeteria?"

Arthur merely showed a happy face and laughed it off. "Yea, I just had to go to the bathroom really bad that's all." Though from what Ichika could tell from Tina's sudden scowl at Arthur, that probably wasn't the case. She decided then to suddenly give Ichika that silly smile she had shown earlier, and grabbed both his hands in ecstasy. "Hey I just had a wonderful idea. Why don't you come spar with the three of us? That way, we can do a 2-on-2 battle." Ichika was taken aback by the offer, but shook his head "No".

"Y-you see, I promised Cecilia I'd practice with her today, and if the situation is calmed down then she's probably on her way." Tina frowned until she pointed over towards Charlotte.

"So you're telling me if Ms. Dunois here asked you to, you'd still say no?" Ichika then felt a sharp pain like a dagger in his back. _Damn it all, she knows my weakness... Why, oh why does this keep happening to me?! _The pain felt even more intense when he noticed Charlotte giving him that smile of hers, but it didn't feel like one; It felt like a demon staring into his very soul.

"Okay, okay, I'll do one match alright? After that, I seriously have to practice or she'll kill me." _Though to be honest, I'm more worried about Charlotte doing that first... _Arthur then walked over as he patted Ichika on the shoulder while giving him a slightly serious look. "Why don't we let these two change first? I need to talk to you about something anyway for a few minutes okay?" Ichika looked at him curiously for a few moments before nodding. "Sure, but is it really something that important?" Arthur's expression then suddenly darkened and he glared at Ichika. "More than you can possibly imagine."

* * *

Charlotte kept staring at the picture she had hung in her locker. It was of her and her mother on a bright summer day as they smelled the flowers in the patch she had planted herself with her guidance. _Sometimes I wonder if you're proud of what I've had to become so far momma. Or if you're disappointed that I've had to stoop so low as to even hide the name you gave me yourself... _Her moment of anguish however was interrupted by Tina covering her eyes with a giggle. "M-Ms. Tina, I know it's you." Tina let out a groan of utter defeat.

"You're too smart for me of course," she grinned happily. She then leaned over and peered curiously at the picture. "My my, she's so beautiful. Oh my god, Is that you as a child Ms. Dunois?" Tina asked, her eyes transfixed on the child in the picture. "W-Why yes it is, is there a reason why?" Charlotte replied nervously. Tina then suddenly hugged Charlotte tightly while she let out a loud moan. "You were just so adorable looking! And to think you haven't lost your youthful look yet, Oh how I envy the lucky." Charlotte blushed intensely before she started coughing.

"Ms. Tina, your squeezing too hard... You think you can ease up a bit?" she chuckled as Tina let go.

"I'm sorry, I just lose it when I see cute things like that," she teased. Charlotte caught her breath as she relaxed a little once she could feel her own chest again. "By the way Ms. Tina, I know you're both from the states, but I've always wanted to ask, which ones are you two from?" Tina went over to close her locker before turning around to show Charlotte a delicate smile. "Well... I'm from Maryland. My father's the Speaker of the House in Washington. So when they heard I was to be an IS pilot they seemed happy..." Charlotte tried to peer around her.

"They were probably proud don't you think?"

"I wouldn't think so. You see, Dad likes anything that can get him publicity so he can get more votes... you could say I was just a tool to make that possible. If you want Arthur's you'll have to ask him... even I don't know entirely about his origins," she put her hand to her chest once she finished and tugged at it hard.

"Well I don't think we should keep the boys waiting much longer should we?" Charlotte asked to lighten the mood while shutting her locker. "You're right. I'm sure they're done talking about whatever it was" she added with a quick smile before opening the door to see Ichika and Arthur in the middle of an argument with Cecilia. _Oh no..._

* * *

"You scheduled your practice with me for today! So what I don't understand is why all of a sudden your canceling on me!" Cecilia shouted at Ichika.

"L-look it's nothing major, They just needed a 4th member for a 2 on 2 match and so I told them I'd be more than willing to try. You can't tell me you're not the least bit curious about Arthur and Tina's abilities right?" he replied with a nervous face. At this point Arthur had gotten in-between the two of them to try and act as a mediator. "Look you guys, I don't know what kind of lover's spat this is but can we both cool it for a second here?" Arthur scoffed as he wiped his hands together before letting out a deep sigh.

_"_L-l-lover's spat?! What do you think this is- a game?!" she pouted back at Arthur. Arthur could only glare down at her in response. "Well from my point of view, it seems to me you're making it into your own little game," he snickered with a grin, "What exactly is the relationship between you two anyway?"

Both Ichika and Cecilia suddenly became very nervous as her face flushed bright red. "W-well, he's... he's my-"

"We're just both friends is all," Ichika interrupted nervously.

"Y-yea that's right, JUST friends nothing more... heh heh." Cecilia started to ball her hand into a fist. _I-Ichika you... you selfish... _She materialized her Blue Tears' right arm out of nowhere and swung at Ichika. "Idiot!" Her fit of rage however was interrupted by Tina catching her arm with her own while glaring at her with a smirk. "Tell me Ms. Alcott, do you know what the metal that makes up IS armor is made of? Or better yet the trauma it could cause to the human body from such a direct hit?" Cecilia glared back at her, but also looked at the design of her IS' arm. It was exactly like Arthur's in every way except for a round- shaped indent above where the wrist began. _How dare she... who does this girl think she is?! _"Let go of me, I am Cecilia Alcott. England's IS Representative conten-"

"Shut up with that bit already," Tina interrupted bitterly. "We all know who you are and everyone but Ichika here is also a representative contender as well. So what exactly do you have to brag about?"

Cecilia whipped her hand back as Tina released it slowly from her grip. "Y-you..."

Tina raised an eyebrow as she de-materialized her IS. "Hm?"

"I-I challenge you to a duel, right here, right now!" she declared.

Tina merely kept her cool while keeping that same glare at Cecilia. "If that's what you wish, it's your funeral though little girl."

"E-E-Excuse me?! I'm taller than you so I don't need to be called 'little' by the likes of you!"

"In stature yes, but in skill by all means no," Tina replied while narrowing her eyes.

"Y-you little brat! I'm so highly skilled I could beat you and your little boy-toy at the same time!"

"B-b-boytoy?! Who even says that anymore?!"

Cecilia then noticed out of the corner of her eye that Arthur was slowly trying to inch away from the both of them. "Ahem, just where do you think you're going?" This also caused Tina to turn and glare at him, making Arthur freeze where he stood fearfully. "You're not trying to abandon me are you Arthur?" Tina asked in a sinister tone.

"Uh n-no no, I was just going to go get changed because I just can't wait to go along with this..." he replied nervously and grabbed Ichika before dragging him inside the locker room with him. _That boy is so strange... first he puts up a front like he's tough, then he tries to retreat when trouble brews. What's his deal?_

* * *

Arthur could feel his spine still tingling from the death glares Tina and Cecilia had given him and stress-fully opened his locker. _God, I thought I was a goner out there... _"Hey Arthur whats wrong? Your face looks like you've seen a ghost," Ichika commented. Arthur tried to slip into the bottom half of his flight uniform, but winced when he felt a small snag. "Ouch!" he yelped silently.

"If there's one thing you ever need to learn Ichika, it's that when a woman looks at you like that... you say no, and you'll regret it," he chuckled. He didn't think Ichika would understand exactly what he meant, even though it was only his second day at the academy, he had seen a lot of guys like Ichika back when he was just a normal boy. _That life seems like it was decades ago... to think it's only been 6 months. _He frowned as he squinted his eyes when he looked at the U.S. IS Corps pin inside his wallet. _Even harder __to believe that all happened within that short time-frame. _Arthur shook his head slightly to try and clear his thoughts once more. _Gotta keep it together, Arthur... for Tina's sake you mustn't show weakness now of all times. _

"Arthur?" Ichika's sudden voice helped him leap out of his self-induced trance. "Oh, huh? What is it Ichika?" Ichika then walked over and put his hand on Arthur's shoulder. "You okay, man? You seem to space in and out a lot, and if I remember correctly you were yelling in your sleep." That struck a nerve that made Arthur cringe for a moment. "You...You heard me in my sleep?" he asked while drooping his head down and curled his hand up on the locker's door, "How much did you hear?"

"All I heard was you grunting in your sleep at first. Then you suddenly yelled out 'Shut up!' and it woke me up. I tried to go back to sleep until I heard you leave the room. I decided to stay in bed though since you probably were only going to one of the bathrooms at either end of the hall."

Arthur took a deep sigh of relief while he finished getting his flight uniform on so he could shut his locker. His uniform was a dark blue color like his eyes, but had a white trim going across the entire edges of the surface. It had an emblem on the location where his heart would be that consisted of a bald eagle with twin broadswords crossed in an upwards 'X' formation behind it, with the words 'IS Corps.' in goldenrod letters written underneath the eagle's claws. "That's an impressive emblem you have there. Mind telling me what it's for?"

Arthur looked down at it for a second then put his hand to it. "This thing... it's more of a curse from the past than something to be proud of," he replied in a dark, hoarse voice. He decided then that was all Ichika needed to know and walked towards the door to the arena, and was about to open it before Ichika grabbed his uniform firmly. "I forgot to tell you, you should be careful against Cecilia. I know that usually a loud dog has no bite to it, but she's different I tell ya." Arthur kept his stature and shook off Ichika as he let a large smirk dash across his face. "She should be the one who's worried, it's two- against- one. Not the way I like to do things, but it could be a good warm-up," he finished as he punched his hands together.


	7. Return of the Flash

**Chapter 7: Return of the Flash**

Cecilia was getting tired of waiting for Arthur to finally take-off into the arena. She noticed Tina was getting impatient as she kept tapping her arm with both of them folded. Cecilia still couldn't help but wonder why it is both of their IS' looked so much alike. _I know most Personal IS pilots get experimentals with the exception of a few such as Charlotte. But it seems like they both have different variants of the same base model... I'm sure the agencies back in England will be interested to see the data of these unknowns; and two of them no less! Should be interesting... _she thought eagerly with an evil smile.

She looked at her Blue Tears' interface as a picture filled with details on the make-up of Tina's IS showed up. Like she thought, all the weapons externally appeared to be detachable, and the frame was almost identical to the one she saw on Arthur only a couple hours ago. Instead of a shield though, it had a large-sized tri-barrel Gatling gun grafted to its right arm along with the same hole she saw before on the left arm. Unlike Arthur's however, her IS was pitch-black along with a thin red trim going along the sides of the legs and arms. It also lacked the many thrusters that lined the back of Arthur's IS as well, so she had to assume that meant she was slower than him. _Maybe she's the long range support for him. Those small things on her shoulders look like cannons... while that Gatling gun looks like it could rip anything to shreds. Though, I still have yet to see a CQC weapon on either of them. I guess I'll have to get exposed to it personally to see the full extent of these so-called Gabriel machines..._she thought to herself frustratingly. _Such a bother... but either way I'll put that little girl and that smart-mouthed boy in their place. Then Ichika and I can be alone together when we practice... _Her mind began drifting out with thoughts that made her face turn red, before her daydreaming was loudly interrupted by Arthur yelling from the ground. "Hey, I'm here and ready! Are we gonna start or what?" _Hmph. The fool doesn't even know how to use the communicator I guess. Maybe I should flatter him and open the app for him._

"Yes, of course we're ready. We were busy waiting for you to hurry up!" Arthur only grinned while giving her a wink in response.

"Well, you see I don't really want to do this and since you're both dragging me into this-"

"WE ARE NOT!" they both interrupted in unison. Cecilia cleared her throat before she could talk while she regained her composure. "I just want to see what the so-called 'Blue Flash' is capable of you see," she giggled to herself.

"Well then," he smirked in response. "Why don't we make this a little more interesting since you're so confident?" Cecilia's face became puzzled for a moment. "What do you propose exactly?"

"Well you see... I've been needing to keep a favor to someone" his eyes turned upwards towards Tina's direction. "So I figure if YOU win, we'll both be your slaves for a week and do whatever you want."

"A-Arthur, what are you saying?!" Tina blushed and yelled back down at him. "Are you crazy?! I'm not being that scum's slave for an entire week!"

"Oh, I'm scum now am I?! I'll have you know I have far more class than you ever will little girl!"

"Why don't you just shove it already?!"

"Enough!" Arthur shouted as he floated up between the two of them. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. "Now... if WE win, you'll have to treat us both to dinner at a 5 star restaurant around here... and you know what, just for the hell of it," he shrugged carelessly, "Make room for Ichika and 1 person of his choosing as well."

Cecilia's mind started racing rapidly as her face blushed intensely. _W-w-what?! For Ichika as well? Is it possible he knows the situation?! You little bastard... I'll make sure you don't win so that doesn't happen!_ "Hmph. Alright! Since I know there's no way in hell the two of you can beat me, I'll gladly accept your terms."

"H-h-hey wait a minute! Don't I get a say in this at all?!" Ichika yelled out.

"No!" Cecilia and Charlotte yelled at once.

"Now then, since all of the interruptions are out of the way, let us begin shall we?"

Suddenly Arthur quickly jetted towards her at max speed and was suddenly so close it sent a cold shudder down her spine. _I-Ignition boost?! H-how does he?! _He stared at her with a demonic-looking smile as his shield split into thirds at the end and a blade unsheathed from underneath them. "Yes, why don't we get started?" he asked in a sinister voice, and slashed fast enough to put Cecilia on the defensive as she dodged to her left. "Hmph. Did you really think I'd let you hit me with that so easily?" she retorted nervously. Arthur let out a snicker before he quickly swiveled around to show her 2 small tubes on the back of the shield opening quickly. "Actually... I expected it" then suddenly 2 salvos of missiles launched straight at her. _What the?! _**BOOM!**

* * *

The huge explosion rocked the entire arena as Arthur and Cecilia fell through the smoke. Arthur shook his head to try and regain his senses. _Okay... The shield energy is down to 400... and I'm sure by her facial expression that face I made scared her. If my assumptions about her and Ichika are correct as well...She won't be able to concentrate too much. _"Tina, you're good to go."

"Roger that," she replied happily and opened fire on Cecilia with her shoulder cannons as she rushed forward. Cecilia was quick to recover however, and suddenly boosted backwards so as to avoid the coming fire. 4 weapons then separated from her two back wing binders and began peppering Tina with beam fire. _Jormungand _at the finishing of his thought, a gray- colored bazooka materialized in his right hand over his shoulder. "Hey Cecilia!" he yelled out as she turned to face him quickly. "Too slow," he teased as he unleashed a volley of missiles from Jormungand and his shield. Cecilia quickly had the 4 weapons slide back into her binders and flew through the explosions of the missiles around her as she ascended into the sky above them. "And you're too presumptuous, little boy" she replied confidently, unleashing the 4 small weapons once more. "Tina, those weapons are gonna be a problem. Think you can keep their attention next time she deploys em?"

"Of course I can, are you forgetting who you're talking to?" she replied, jetting off in the middle of all of them, spraying and flying in circles as the 4 weapons followed her bombarding all around her IS. _Jeez, what nerve did I hit there..._ Arthur thought to himself in disdain before firing several more shots from Jormungand around Cecilia's position. He watched as she was forced to move again, but noticed out of the corner of his eye that the 4 weapons had begun to slow down. _Interesting... _"I think it's time we show her how a team does things don't you agree, Tina?"

Tina grinned and revved up her Gatling gun. "Thought you'd never ask."

* * *

Cecilia kept trying to keep her focus while she quickly swirled around to fire her Starlight Mark III sniper rifle at the missiles following her. After a few shots, the beams melted through the missiles and she felt slightly relieved until one exploded into a mountain of smoke. _So he can change the type of missile at will? That's going to be tricky, but no matter... I will still win. _She ascended into the air and quickly scanned around looking for the two of them. _Strange... if they're not out here, the only other place would be..._ she smirked before she unleashed a barrage of beam fire from her rifle into the smoke, then proceeded to do the same with her wireless BT weapons. Before she knew it, Arthur came jetting out of the smoke towards her at max speed, his shield and gun having switched hands. She veered backward almost instinctively to dodge, but not before Arthur caught up to make a spinning side-ways slash through one of her binders, throwing her off-balance. _W-what the hell?!_ Before she could regain stability however, Tina followed out of the smoke to fire her cannons again. Unfortunately though, this time Cecilia was too slow and her shields took the full pounding of it before sending her flying backwards. _What's going on here?! They're acting as if I'm just some toy for their amusement!_ She then braked in mid-air before unleashing her BT weapons once she regained a somewhat stable position. "You are both such a pain!" she yelled at the top of her lungs as two silver tubes swung forward from her hips and fired two missiles that split up after Arthur and Tina. _I will not lose... I will not lose! Not to a man or that little brat of a girl!_

* * *

Ichika and Charlotte had been watching the entire fight from inside one of the launch pads in the arena via holo-video projectors. _These two really are something... _Ichika thought to himself with a deep gulp. _Hope I never have to face them in a team match... _"They're quite impressive" Charlotte commented, her face full of astonishment. Up until now, they had only been silently watching the fight go on between the three. "Yea, they are" he replied nervously. "Good thing Cecilia interrupted the fight so that's not us in there right?" Charlotte glared over at him with a frown and shook her head. "Sometimes I wonder about you Ichika..." she trailed off and darted her eyes back to the screen. "Huh? Charl what'd I say?" Ichika sighed upon being denied an explanation after a few silent moments and decided to do the same as well, but noticed there was a crowd beginning to gather in the stands of the arena. _Guess they're going to be putting on quite a show._

* * *

Arthur skidded onto the ground, before making a full 360- degree turn to avoid the beams shooting at him from everywhere. _Jesus, just two of these things are annoying. And then there's that..._ His eyes stayed more focused on the missile that seemed to follow him to no end. _I hope Tina's having a better time than I am... Luckily we traded weapons in the smoke though... _he grinned to himself with delight. _Scylla._ A scoped rifle of a rather standardized build materialized out of nowhere in Arthur's left hand. _Let's see if this theory of mine works... but first._ He swiveled around to face the missile with his SMG before letting loose a stream of bullet fire that engulfed the missile and sent it flying to the ground in a ball of fire, the scraps of metal flying past him. _One down... 2 more problems to go._

"Tina, how's it going over there?"

"Not too shabby actually!" she replied delightfully. He turned to see her doing almost the same as he did, albeit she used the grappling hook in her left arm to grab onto the missile to get away from the beams as she peppered the two objects from above with her Gatling gun. _That's actually kinda funny to see... That girl's just crazy sometimes I swear. _He chuckled slightly as he shot off into the center of the arena, moving left and right with the beams exploding the sand around him. _This is __getting too familiar for its own good... I'm ending this now. _Arthur thought and turned around before opening fire with both his rifle and SMG, his shield shooting off a few missiles as well. The weapons didn't let up though, which forced him into a defensive maneuver. He clenched his teeth trying to hold the guns steady before finally he knew what had to be done. "Tina, back- to – back now!" She followed almost instantaneously as they both hit their backs together and spread their arms, guns in hand, letting loose sprays of bullets everywhere. They counted two explosions before having to spread out to reload again. _ At this rate, we're not gonna have much time to reload or do anything... _"Tina, I think it's time we do THAT" he winked at her to give her the right idea. She nodded back smiling, before rushing towards Cecilia. Arthur followed suite after throwing away everything but his shield. _We're gonna have to do this just right..._ "Use it now Tina!"

* * *

_Strike Eagle!_ As Tina threw away her Gatling and put her hands almost together, a large rectangular gun materialized in the middle of her hands. The gun was almost as large as Tina's IS itself along with having a triangular indent at the end, with a clean open cut through the middle of the entire gun to the trigger's location plus several metal lines intersecting at certain points in 'X' shapes. Clad in black with red trim along the edges, the gun would've intimidated even the most level- headed of pilots. "I have to warn you Arthur, I still don't have much training with this!"

"You won't need it. I know you can do it" he confidently replied. Tina blushed lightly at his remark before decelerating to let him strike at Cecilia. "What? Haven't learned your lesson yet?" She boasted as she scowled down at him. Arthur smirked before shooting off the last of his missiles from his shield around Cecilia. Tina ascended into the sky as quickly as she could while the smoke enveloped Cecilia and the last of her 2 weapons returned to her. _Begin charging._ A meter appeared near her shield energy. It read at the bottom from Mach 1 to Mach 5. _I only need to do 3 at the most so I don't kill her... this is only a practice battle after all. _The gun began glowing yellow within the barrel as the meter started slow at first, but picked up in speed ever so slightly. _ Come on... Come on!_ She looked over to Arthur who was basically floating around waiting for her to take the shot. "Arthur, I'm set-up here. Keep her attention away from me."

"No problem" he replied before rushing up to her to grab her hand. "W-what are you doing?"

He showed her that same grin he always used when he had a plan. "Change of style. We're doing it like we did in training."

"B-but that's a little fancy isn't it? Back then that was just spur of the moment."

"Well she's going to unleash those last two along with some missiles I'm sure, which will make it hard to conceal you. So really, I don't see a choice. I only shot those smoke missiles to make time for a different idea anyway."

"W-wait, were those your last ones?!"

"Yep," he replied calmly as his shield swiveled back around to the blade-front. Tina's eye twitched slightly before having Arthur boost away with her in hand. "A-Arthur, what are you doing?! I need to have both hands to charge this thing!"

"I know. Double Helix now!" he yelled upon circling around her, his hand he used to grab her earlier then grabbed onto the spare stabilizer on Strike Eagle. She followed along quickly while from afar, all one could see was two blue lights spinning around each other, making an upward arc before diving down then turning forward to head straight for Cecilia, who responded exactly like Arthur predicted. "All the better! I'll take you both out at once!"

"Not if I can help it!" Tina defiantly screamed back. **BOOM! **The deafening roar of the explosions could be heard as beams and missiles impacted the both of them.

* * *

Cecilia had both bits return back to her before letting out a sigh of relief. _Well, looks like I won. How nice it will be to flaunt before the two of them. Will probably have to do it away from the others though, otherwise it wouldn't be very lady-like. _She snickered to herself as she pictured it all unfolding. "Hey there, Princess" A dark voice said from behind her after tapping on her shoulder. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Arthur behind her. "B-but how?! I saw you both get hit!"

"I'll explain in the hospital."

"W-what do you mean in the-" He chuckled before pointing up in the air. When Cecilia looked up though, her heart sank. There was Tina, clad in her IS while blocking the sunlight, taking aim. "And to you miss Alcott, I bid Adieu" She taunted over her comm before firing the large gun in her hands. All Cecilia saw was a bright yellow light, before being sent zooming into the ground and losing all consciousness.

"I'm telling you she's fine, the most she'll have is minor bruises for awhile. You should have a little more faith in her" A familiar male voice mentioned in a relaxed tone.

"How can you say that when you guys just beat her down like that? It looked like she was pretty hurt from where we were watching."

"You make it sound so unprofessional. We merely out-strategized her is all. Look, I'll stay for tonight and make sure she's OK, that sound fine with you?" the same voice mentioned again.

Cecilia heard the door close before opening her eyes to see none other than Arthur wiping her forehead with a wet rag. "E-excuse me, who gave you permission to do that?"

He smiled back at her and felt it with his hand for a moment. "Yep, just as I thought. You're going to have a fever if you don't take it easy."

"Did you hear me? I said who gave you permission to touch me like that?"

"No one. I decided it would be best if Ichika or I did it since the nurse has finished all she needed to do. You made it out with just minor bruises, though it almost looked like you broke a leg out there. Had us all worried for a moment" he finished as he walked over to the sink to squeeze out the dirty sweat from the rag. Cecilia blushed with her mind racing full of impure thoughts. _I would've much rather had Ichika soaking me down than...this boy._ "Wh-Why are you taking care of me? We were just fighting... doesn't that make you cautious towards me or something? I insulted your girlfriend for crying out loud!" she winced once she finished though, her body aching all over. "Don't strain yourself now, or it's going to hurt a lot more. As for responding to your insulting of Tina, She was just in the moment is all, besides she helped me carry you here. You may want to thank her when you get out of here" his voice showing a more serious tone as he began wiping her arms with the rag. "Don't worry, I'm only here for today. Ichika said he'd help the next 2 days for ya."

Cecilia's face became covered in a bright smile at the mention of Ichika before she switched to a quick frown. "Waaaiiittt a second. This almost seems like you're helping me."

"Well I'm helping take care of you, so I'd consider that a form of helping, genius."

"No I mean... with Ichika. What are you up to?"

"Well... let's just say I wanted to do a little experiment; Hence the whole bringing him with us to the restaurant. He makes a choice, and whomever goes gets a chance. It's not really hard to see that you all have something of a longing feeling for him."

"Then why doesn't he ever notice?!" she cried out before cringing again from the aches.

Arthur chuckled before resuming wiping the rest of her arm. "Some guys... just need a wake-up call is all; And he's REALLY overdue for one. I'll see what I can do in that department anyway" he grinned and winked at her. Cecilia kept that same scowl on her face. "I still don't understand why you're helping me in this way."

"Well for the sake of sportsmanship, I think you deserve a fair shot as much as anyone here. I was also hoping if you did get with him, maybe he'd help change that attitude of yours," he finished as he got up to wash his hands after squeezing out the rag once more. "E-excuse me?! And just what is wrong with my attitude?!"

"Well for starters you're cocky, over-dramatic, your blind faith in your 'Nobility' is annoying as hell, along with the fact that you're very attention wanting at times more than the others from what I've seen so far," he listed while drying his hands calmly.

"H-How dare you! As if you're perfect yourself!"

She could see she hit a nerve when Arthur stopped moving for a moment while squinting his eyes in the mirror over the sink. "You're right... I'm not perfect. In fact. I'm the farthest thing from it; But it takes a lot to accept that... for anyone." He turned around quickly to walk out the door. "I just don't want you to end up like me... and by the way, I'll have Ichika bring you dinner in an hour."

Cecilia's face became puzzled as she stared at him. "Wait, what do you mean by-"

"Good night." With that, the door slammed shut. Cecilia couldn't help but pout for a few moments, the last words from Arthur replaying through her mind over and over. _What in the world does he mean by that? When I get out of here... I'll probably have to ask- _she shuddered for a moment- _her..._

* * *

Tina rounded the corner with a smile as she carried a tray full of food towards the medical wing. _I'm sure Arthur will be happy to see a fresh meal after that battle _she thought cheerfully. _He must be starving since I could've sworn I heard his stomach growl on the way to the ER. _She stopped for a second when she felt a vibration in her pocket. "Hm?" she set the food tray down on a nearby chair for a second so she could pull out her cell phone. "Hello? Oh, hey Dad what's up? Yea, I'm fine... what about you? Oh... Wait you are?! Do you think Arthur can come along?" she asked as she twirled a strand of her hair happily while leaning on the wall. "What do you mean he can't?... Wait what does breaking the law have to do with him coming along?" When she heard the answer, she froze for a few moments to where the phone slipped from her hands, the screen reflecting her horror-stricken face. She stammered for a few moments, her breath increasing rapidly. _Why is he... What the hell did he do?! _She picked up up her phone before making a mad dash down the hallway. "I'm going to have to call you back dad."

* * *

Ichika sat down in the middle of the booth that he and his friends always used. Once he sat down, all but Cecilia and Laura came from all directions to sit next to him. "Heard you got into trouble with Cecilia today" Rin mentioned with a nasty grin. Ichika ate some of his noodles before responding. "You... could say that. Now I've got to help take care of her for the next couple of days. According to Arthur, she's going to have a fever on top of those bruises she got."

"Bruises, huh? Sounds like she bit off more than she could chew," Houki commented with her usual scowl. "Well... you could say the match didn't exactly go in her favor" Ichika thought with a weak smile as he scratched his head. "That's an understatement," Charlotte chuckled. "Those two really dominated the match. It felt unfair, but then again it was 2 on 1."

"Arthur honestly kept griping about how he said it was unfair as well," Ichika added. Rin was about to speak her own opinion before Tina came rushing to the table almost out of breath. "Ichika! Do you know where Arthur went?" she asked while breathing heavily. Ichika blinked blankly for a few seconds before remembering. "Well, he told me to bring Cecilia some dinner in an hour a few minutes ago, then left saying he needed to check out his IS. Why, is something wrong?"

Tina closed her eyes before letting out a deep sigh. "The hangar!" she said as she raised her head quickly and took off again towards the stairs.

* * *

Arthur walked over to the stand in the corner. It was a machine where an IS could be held externally for the pilot's of mass-produced models to get out. _Gabriel Striker. _As his armor materialized all around him, he walked up onto the pressure plate so that the mechanical arms would know to grab the arm's and leg's armor pieces. Once he felt enough slack, he hopped down onto the ground before placing his hand on the centerpiece of the IS. Upon touching it, vast quantities of data and information entered his mind as he became induced into a trance-like state for a few moments. When he opened his eyes, he took his hand off the IS slowly. "Gabriel, pull up all recent information gathered within the last 3 weeks."

"**Accessing... Some records are classified. Authorization code required for 75% of requested articles."**

Arthur took a deep breath before looking around him to make sure he was the only one in the hangar at the moment. " Override Code: GENESIS Alpha-Two."

"**Access Granted... Showing data now."** Upon finishing, various blue-colored data screens with vast amounts of white-colored text enveloped themselves around Arthur before spreading out so they could be seen clearly. _Hmmm... _He slid some to the side, while pulling some down from above and below him. His eyes darted back and forth quickly between the various screens before one caught his attention. "What is this piece of equipment here? I don't remember putting this on."

**"Scanning... Scanning complete."** A small display popped up in front of his face with details. _Just like I thought... I knew it would be too good to be true for me to get this back from them without some kind of trickery._ "Disable and eject it from Suit frame."

**"Negative."**

Arthur's head popped up surprised for a moment. "Excuse me?"

**"Part cannot be removed without proper authorization."**

_Of course... Thought this was going along too well... So they've decided to keep an eye on me while I'm here._ Arthur grinned to himself for a moment. _Unfortunately for them however, I expected that._ He started typing rapidly on the holo-keyboard near his chest. _You may have taken my family, my daughter, and my life from me. But you won't have my IS. _As he kept typing however, he heard footsteps approaching from behind him. He turned quickly to only see Tina approaching him, gasping for air. "T-Tina? You alright?" he asked while walking over to check on her.

"Why?" she asked out of the blue. "Why? Why what?" he leaned down on his knee to look up at her face. He could tell she had been stressed over something, her eyes looking as if she had just been crying.

"Why didn't you tell me you were banned from the U.S.? Do you realize how serious this is?!" she shouted out, gasping for air.

"You ran all the way here didn't you... Let me get you some water-"

"No!" she interrupted abruptly. Tina then looked down at him with tears in her eyes. "I want you... I want you to tell me everything. I want to know why you've been acting so strange lately, why you were freaking out earlier. I want to be there for you through all this, don't you understand?"

Arthur closed his eyes before rubbing his temples together and got back up to resume typing on the keyboard. "You know how I am. The less of a burden I have to be to anyone the better. That's just how it has to be. Besides I tried to tell you earlier, but that was... interrupted."

"You still misunderstand the meaning of the word though don't you." She took a deep breath so she could regain her composure as she tried to wipe her tears away. "Tell me... Do you remember... the promise I made to you?"

Arthur halted for a second upon hearing that before quickly resuming typing. "There isn't a day that goes by I don't remember it. It was the only thing that kept me going throughout that entire event." He tried to continue typing, but found himself losing the will to continue. "Look, I'm going to be honest..." he waved his hand through the holograms to return them to the IS, knowing he wouldn't be able to work on it anymore for the night. He then walked over to her and laid his hands on her shoulders, his face only inches away from hers. "I was scared Tina... and I still am. That's why I'm trying to make it as least stressful for you as possible. What they could do... to me or you or even RION. I have nightmares about it; I can't sleep for god's sake. I wake up hearing her voice or yours, telling me that I failed, that I screwed up and have become nothing more than a loser again. I just... I don't want to lose anyone else" he finished once he fell to his knees, his head sunken to the floor. "I don't... I don't know what'll happen to me when I do lose someone again. I may lose control once more... but this time you may not be there to-" his words were interrupted by Tina wrapping her arms around him tightly, her head resting right next to his. After a few moments passed, she touched her forehead to his own, and began happily reciting, " I am yours, and you are mine, and so I shall save you-"

"-for the rest of all time" he finished as he rested himself against her. "Thanks, I needed that.." he sighed before wiping his forehead of sweat. "No one understands me like-"

"-Like I do, I know," she replied with a smile. "I could say the same for you. You were the first person who became my friend not because of what family I'm from or how rich they are, but for me as a person."

"That's because the base was the first thing other than a private school that you were to attend if I remember correctly" he chuckled.

"That's right," she sighed while she loosened her arms and leaned back. "You feeling better now?" she asked with a happy grin.

Arthur looked up at her with a half-baked smile. "I always feel better when you're around, you already know that," he let out a deep sigh. "So you're wanting to know the whole story huh?" Tina nodded in response, which made Arthur pat the ground right next to him. "Alright then, let's start from the moment after you left."

* * *

Laura was about to open the door to her dorm room, before she pulled a military knife from her pants as a safety precaution. As she opened the door slowly, she peered around in quick cycles from left to right. When she heard nor saw any movement, she shut the door quickly behind her and sheathed her knife. _I must stay vigilant at all times... it wasn't very long ago this woman whom I'm stuck with as a roommate stood in my way... and still does. _She decided to undress and lay in her bed. Laura always did things unusually, such as sleeping nude, but then again she didn't know any better. _Bring up Battle Data file D34._ A small blue holo-video screen appeared in front of her face. She watched as Arthur's Gabriel flew around the screen, bullets blazing all over the place along with blue beams shooting around him. _Hmph... the boy shows some degree of tactical skill. He shouldn't be a threat to me though, and that's all that matters. _She narrowed her eyes though, when she saw Tina and him fire back-to-back. _Though I'm confused if it's him being brilliant... or if it's just dumb luck. _She squeezed her fingertips together over the screen to minimize it quickly once she heard the door open. Her roommate Charlotte had finally arrived. "I was surprised not to see you at dinner with everyone else Laura." Laura leered over as Charlotte began changing into her pajamas.

"I had no need to, I found a tray of perfectly good food in the hallway that was untouched according to Schwarz Regen's scanners." Charlotte twitched slightly before turning to face Laura. "You- took food from the hallway? Don't you think maybe that's just a little unhealthy?"

Laura closed her eyes confidently while crossing her arms with her usual scowl. "I see no problem if my IS does not detect one, that's only rational thinking is it not?" She stretched before deciding to get up out of the covers and use the shower. "L-Laura, put some clothes on!" Charlotte yelled out, her face glowing bright red as she covered her eyes partially. Laura ignored her as she entered the shower after closing the door. _Why is it I have to put up with this? I'm far better off alone than needing a roommate as they keep telling me. No matter how much I ask that of Instructor Orimura she denies me... _While she proceeded to lather the nice-smelling shampoo in her long silver hair, she had the video re-play itself while muted. _At least this will keep me busy for a few minutes..._ she thought to herself with a devilish smile on her face while leaning back on the shower wall.

* * *

Tabane let out a loud yawn while stretching her arms out from the keyboard in front of her. _Hmmm... I wonder what I should do for dinner..._ She was about to get up until suddenly her phone rang, which she answered almost instantaneously when she recognized the unique ring-tone. "Chi-chaaaaannnn! How nice it is to hear from you!" she exclaimed with her usual wide smile. She twirled around in circles full of joy as the voice kept talking to her over the phone. "Hm? The design? Oh, you mean that one! Yea, I took a look at it. It's... different. Well, sure I'd love the chance to construct it." After a few moments, Tabane's expression changed from happy to one of a pouting schoolgirl. "Awwww, do I really have to? I'm sure I could just do it myself. Ugh... fine. Since you insist on it so badly, I'll give the kid a chance. But he screws up even once, he's out." She clicked the hang up button with a grunt before storming off. _She knows I don't like new people... so if she insists on a man's help this bad. He must be important..._

* * *

As she turned to the holo-tv off, Rin stretched before pulling the covers over herself. She felt very warm and snuggly tonight, coupled with the feeling of dreaming about Ichika, her heart beat at an incredible rate. _Situational irony at it's best... I want to sleep, yet I can't._ She was about to get up for a glass of water for the night, when she heard the door open and her roommate Tina tell someone "Good night" in a very happy tone. Tina let out a loud sigh of relief while Rin could hear her trying to silently change. "You don't have to be sneaky you know. I'm still up." Tina froze for a second before smiling back at Rin. "I figured as much. Needed a midnight snack, I'm assuming?" Rin nodded embarrassingly as she pulled the covers over her face. "Alrighty, just wait right there and when I'm done showering, we can have a couple snacks" she finished with a smile before walking off. "Tina" Rin muttered out of the blue. "Hm?"

"Is...is everything okay...between the two of you now?"

Tina giggled before she hopped over to hug Rin tightly with a bright smile. "Everything's wonderful. I believe... he's finally seeing the light," she finished with that same smile and hurried into the shower.


	8. The Chosen Girl

**_Sorry for the long wait, everyone! Have had a lot of busy things going on lately. Anyways thanks for the follows and reviews you've given me so far! I should be able to have chapter 9 uploaded within a week as well so expect a lot more to happen from here on. So now I give you chapter 8: The Chosen Girl!_  
**

**Chapter 8: The Chosen Girl**

Arthur lessened his speed as he approached the sharp turn with Tina's IS catching up close behind him. _Like hell I'm gonna let you beat me in a race_ he thought to himself with a confident grin before using Ignition Boost at the end of the turn. She fired her shoulder cannons at him to try to throw him off course. Arthur responded by blocking with his shield while struggling to keep up his speed due to it's weight. He decided to try firing back on her with his SMG. Tina was too fast however, and had caught up with her own Ignition Boost by using the shells as a diversion. The two each pulled a knife off their hips then swung hard at each other with a loud "CLANG!". Tina then used it to her advantage by swinging hard to her right to knock Arthur's knife out of his hand, forcing him to back off. _It's been only a few days since I got this thing back, but I'm still too sluggish. Seems to me she's taking full advantage of that..._ he thought disappointingly. Arthur swirled back around to face forward followed by him trying to speed up. Tina came along beside him, grinning back at him all the while. "Let's be fair on this last stretch. Don't wanna hurt you now" she teased. "Ohoho, You're gonna regret those words" Arthur replied as he set his Striker to full speed. He could see the white finish line, picturing himself crossing it first. _Let's show em what we can do Gabriel._ Tina struggled to keep up, until she jettisoned off all unnecessary weight to catch up with him. He could picture it from the stands almost like the horse races he used to watch with his father back home. "_They're on the last stretch , Hamilton and Stone are neck-in-neck. Even I can't tell from up here who could win this one folks!" is probably what that announcer guy would be saying. _Arthur threw away his shield to also increase his speed, the two of them nearly horizontally aligned together.

Together, they both did one last Ignition Boost, their shield's energy both dropping below 50 as all anyone could see was two blue lights zoom forward before seeing them skid on the ground in a cloud of dust. Once the dust cleared, Arthur let out a deep breath before de-materializing his IS and falling flat on his back to the ground. "Well... that was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be" he panted.

Tina walked over to him, hands on her hips, while staring down with a smug grin. "Awwwww, is the Blue Flash going soft on me?"

"Hey, hey now... I'm just getting the hang of things again," he got up slowly once she offered her hand to him. Arthur looked over the entire track, the place almost looking like a place racecar fan's would go ecstatic for. "So this is the Cannonball Fast arena huh? I think cars would do better here than IS'."

"I somewhat agree, though I'm still trying to figure out why they named it that." They both looked at each other for a few seconds before letting out small laughs. Tina then clasped her hands together behind her back while looking at Arthur with a cute smile. Arthur looked over at her for a second before lightly smirking.

"All right, what is it? You always take that pose when you've got news to tell."

"Well... Rin was gonna go with me to pick out a dress for our dinner date in a couple days. Do you... wanna come along by any chance?" she looked up at him with her face she knew he couldn't resist.

_ I swear it's like she's a poor puppy lost on the streets..._ "O-Oh, uhm, well..." he stammered out while backing up. It was to no avail though, as Tina edged herself closer and closer going, "Hm? Hmmmmm?"

_Gotta get out of this one quick... I hate clothes shopping._ "Well... wouldn't you want... to surprise me though?"

"Hm?" Tina's head tilted slightly, her face full of curiosity.

"Y-yea wouldn't you want to surprise me with it, instead of one I've seen already? Would probably make the night better, would it not?"

Tina grinned before she lightly poked his nose. "Silly, I knew you wouldn't wanna go. I was just wanting to see how you'd respond."

Arthur twitched for a few seconds before finally regaining his ability to talk fluently. "R-right ok. Any other bits of news I should know?"

Tina turned around and took a few steps before stopping. "Well you see, my father's coming in a couple of weeks to visit to see how I'm doing and all. I know you two get along well, so I just thought you would wanna know. Maybe... maybe he could help get you clearance back into the U.S.-"

"I'd never ask that of him." Arthur's interrupted words made Tina's head sink slightly, but she knew why he felt that way. "Your father's the Speaker of the House, and with that he has to have some degree of fairness. It won't look good letting a fugitive back into the country, even if only a few know that I am as such."

"I- I know that but-" her words were stopped by Arthur holding her arm.

"Look, I know you want to help me. But trust me... some wounds just need time to heal. If you heal them too quickly, your body won't stay balanced and will overcompensate as a result. For now, we just need to let things be," He pulled her close so he could hug her tightly, "I'm okay, alright? You don't need to go out of your way to try and make me happy... you already do that just by being here."

Tina looked up at him with a soft smile, before she buried her face in his chest. "If that's how you feel... then okay, I'm fine with it. Promise me though... that you'll get help."

"Hm?"

"You're traumatized by something... I can tell that much. The only time you've been calm was during the fight with Cecilia. Ever since that morning you freaked out, you've been really edgy with your eyes looking everywhere, as if you're waiting for someone."

Arthur sighed deeply before letting go of Tina, his hands going to hips. "I won't lie to you, I am haunted by something... then again I could say the same for my whole life since I started using these IS. The only thing that matters now is that I don't lose what I still have. That's my only and most important concern." He then pulled a wallet from his pocket. Inside it was his military-issued ID along with a picture of an old man. "You know who this is, don't you?"

Tina backed up before looking down at the picture, her eyes narrowing alongside a regretful face. "It's your grandfather right?"

He nodded silently and stared at the picture for a minute, before putting the wallet back in his pocket. "He never stopped smiling... even on his deathbed, he was still happy everyday they went in to see him. I idolized him naturally, always wanted to be like him. He was the father I wish I could've had..." Arthur's face contorted as he tried to hold back old tears of anguish. "It's been 8 years, yet I still can't even-"

Tina interrupted him by placing her finger over his lips. "You don't have to say anymore. That's the only problem with you... you like to repeat yourself too much," she joked with a caring face.

"Why don't we go get some lunch? I'm sure that whole race worked up your appetite right?" He looked back down to his watch that showed '1:25' on it's screen. His face flushed red slightly however when his stomach growled loudly. "Yea... let's do that." Tina smiled before tugging him towards the locker room.

"W-wait Tina, you're supposed to change BEFORE I go in there!"

"But that would be no fun!" she giggled as she kept tugging him along.

* * *

Cecilia kept looking around throughout the cafeteria as she made her way to the booth Ichika and everyone else were in. _Strange... I would've thought he would be here for sure. _"You looking for something, Cecilia?" Ichika's voice broke her out of her curious trance while she sat down. "Oh, no it's nothing Ichika dear," she finished as she kept looking about while starting to eat.

"So how's it feel to bite off more than you can chew?" Rin snickered while Houki grew a small confident smile at the sight of Cecilia.

"Just what are you implying Rin?!" Cecilia replied loudly.

"What she's 'implying' is how you got your ass kicked because you ran before you could even walk," Houki commented while giving Rin a sly nod of agreement.

"One should always observe the enemy as well as their tactics before engaging," Laura added in calmly.

"N-now everyone, let us all settle down. We do not need to make a scene, agreed?" Charlotte interrupted nervously.

Cecilia let it end there, but felt agitated nonetheless at their mocking of her. _I never got the chance to ask him what he meant. But at least I had something close to alone time with Ichika..._ A soft smile came to her face, but soon disappeared when she remembered that the others would always barge in and crowd the hospital room she had been in the last couple of days while Ichika would help her out. _These rivals of mine are just so relentless... if he's really planning on helping me out, he should give me a situation where it's guaranteed we'll be alone... _she thought to herself while looking around at the other 4 girls surrounding Ichika.

"Oh, by the way Ichika, have you decided who you are taking with you?" Charlotte asked out of nowhere. The others voices fell silent the moment Ichika's face grew nervous from the question.

"Something you want to tell us Ichika?" Houki growled with what Ichika called her 'Scary Face'.

"Yea, I'd really like to know..." Rin joined in, her eyes glowing red like a demon's at Ichika. Laura however, remained unchanged which made Cecilia think either she didn't understand the situation, or felt no need to bother with it.

"W-Well, you see uh... thanks to Arthur and Tina winning, apparently... I'm to bring someone with me along with the both of them to a 5 star restaurant in town; To which Cecilia is agreeing to pay for." Even the tables around them fell silent while Ichika finished his explanation of the situation.

"Did I just hear that right?"

"A date to a restaurant with Orimura?"

"It's almost too good to be true!"

Suddenly, a large mob of girls blocked the ends of the booth, the faces on all of them full of determination. Cecilia felt smothered in the tense atmosphere as they all prepared to speak, until a voice from behind the girls made everyone freeze still. "If you have time to stand around, then you have time to be productive! Unless you're not done getting your lunch finished, I'd like to see you practicing and honing your skills as much as possible!" Chifuyu declared. The crowd slowly fell apart, with most returning to their tables groaning while only a few left the cafeteria altogether.

Ichika took a large sigh of relief until Chifuyu came up to them. "Orimura, quit causing a ruckus! It's a wonder how you ever get out of bed in the morning without making a mess."

"Actually, he's quite tidy," a chuckling voice from behind her added in. When Cecilia looked around her, Arthur and Tina stood there with their lunch trays in hand before sitting down at a table near them. "It's okay Miss Orimura, in truth you could say I'm the source of the 'ruckus'. So if you need to dish out a punishment, I'll take it for him," he commented with a happy smirk.

Tina let out a sigh while looking over at him. "Was this all because of that bet you made? It's almost like you're wanting to stress Ichika out, Arthur."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he retorted in a relaxed tone as he sipped some water. Cecilia leered over in Arthur's direction, to which he stared back as well. "Something bothering you, Princess?" She only scoffed while turning away.

"Hey Tina, which one of you won the race?" Rin curiously asked as she scooted out to walk over to the two of them. Arthur and Tina both looked at each other again before smiling. "We tied," they replied almost in unison.

"Though when you've got two IS' of the same basic frame, when you put it all down to that, it's hard for either of us to be 'faster' than the other," Arthur mentioned as he leaned back slightly in his chair.

"Oh? That would explain the resemblance between them," Ichika pondered.

"Yea, I'd like to say they're America's response to the very well crafted Raphael Revive series of France, though in retrospect they've still got a few bugs left to fix," Arthur replied while looking up at the ceiling.

"You seem to show an affinity for the Dunois Corporation's prized design," Charlotte commented.

"I just love versatility is all. The one who wins battles is the one who adapts the most, who keeps the enemy on their toes to where they never get a moment to relax. Combat, I hate to admit, can actually be two extremes. You can either have it flow like the waters of a river, or it can be as jagged as a mountain range."

"You're partially right," Chifuyu noted. "Your comparison of how crazy it can become though could use a touch. 'As jagged as a mountain range' isn't the analogy I would use."

"Then what would yours be?"

Chifuyu closed her eyes for a moment while letting out a deep breath. "As sudden as an earthquake or monsoon are among some that come to mind."

"Eh, doesn't sound much different but oh well," he shrugged in response. A thought seemed to come to him though, after he had paused for a few moments. "By the way, Cecilia..."

"Hm? What do you want?"

"You feeling a lot better now? Ichika said you appeared to recover pretty quick, but I'd rather hear from the patient herself."

"Hmph. Well if you were that curious you could've just come to see for yourself, you know?"

"Yes, well-" He peered over to Tina with a sincere smile, "I was... pre-occupied you could say."

Tina giggled for a second until she tried to start eating as well. Arthur's stomach growled as well, prompting him to do the same. Everyone else resumed, while Chifuyu walked off stating she had prior business to attend to.

* * *

Rin kept walking ahead as she could hear Tina lagging behind her. "Rin, do I really have to do this? I just finished lunch so why can't I go take a nap or something? Or better yet work on my IS with Arthur?"

"Because I'd like to practice with you today, it's not everyday the roommate you have finally shows her potential she's apparently been hiding."

"W-well, I just never had the need to use it arise that's all."

Rin laughed at her excuse while she continued forward. "Whatever you say, besides lately you've been going everywhere with Arthur. Don't you think a little time with someone of the same sex would help balance it out?"

She heard Tina stop, which made her think she was trying to comprehend what she just said. "You're the first girl I've ever had tell me that..."

"Really? Then you must not have had many friends," Rin said in a joking manner before continuing on. She noticed Tina trudged along behind her in a slightly sad manner, so Rin grabbed her hand and pulled her along. "C'mon, if we don't hurry we might not beat the mid-afternoon crowd."

Tina looked up at her with a weak smile. "Right, I'm sorry," she softly chuckled as they picked up their pace.

* * *

"You know, you've really put me in a very bad situation," Ichika groaned as he tried to keep up, "Now, people are going to be like they were in the lunchroom before..."

"Then just make a choice already and they'll leave you alone," Arthur lazily replied with a wave of his hand, "The only way to get out of what you call a 'problem' is to use the solution you know is available to you, wouldn't you agree?"

"I guess so... by the way, where are you going exactly?"

"Well, I need to do some work on my IS, so the maintenance hangar will be my destination for today. If you want, we could take a look at your Byakushiki as well."

"Huh? Doesn't your country take care of your IS' maintenance for you?"

"I prefer a more personalized touch," he smirked while pulling open the door to the hangar.

When they both entered though, they could tell they were interrupting several projects that looked quite important. Several groups of girls were working on various things ranging from IS equipment to a few Uchigane units themselves. Arthur took in a big whiff before walking towards an empty stand. "Ahhhh, I love the smell of arc welders in the morning."

"But it's the afternoon..." Ichika interjected.

Arthur only sighed. "Details, details... anyways, you wanna go up first?"

"Um, sure I guess I could." Ichika summoned Byakushiki before walking up into the stand and letting the clamps grab the arm and leg pieces of his IS.

"Alright, you can hop off now. The machine will keep it standing." Ichika released his arms and legs out of the IS while Arthur helped him down. The other groups working however, began to notice their presence and slowly but surely started crowding around the two of them.

"Thanks, man," Ichika said as he touched the ground.

"No problem, now let's take a look at your IS, shall we?" Arthur walked over to the main interface for the machine itself, the data on it's screen showing the lay-out on the Byakushiki as well as it's power output in the different systems. "By the way Ichika, don't worry about the confidentiality issue if it's bugging you at all, I'm not one to share secrets you won't want me to."

"Well, actually that wasn't bothering me, but now that you mention it, it's good to know I suppose."

Arthur made a silent acknowledgment with a grunt as he scanned through the various data that kept popping up. "You've got quite an interesting machine here. You ever have any problems with it?"

"Well, everyone does with their own at some point I'm sure, why do you ask?"

"Well, the frame looks to be in good condition, but the boosters could use some repair. Someone hit ya too hard?" he asked in a serious tone.

"Seems like everyone always does since I apparently have a knack for saying the wrong thing."

"I-I could help with that," a random voice in the crowd behind them uttered. A girl in heavy overalls came through, though they both recognized the strange hairpins she had on. "Honne?" they both asked.

"Y-Yea," she replied with an embarrassed smile. "Is it okay if I help?" she asked while looking up at both of them with puppy-dog eyes.

"Sure," Arthur confirmed with a happy smile as he petted her head, to which Honne made a soothing smile. "Anyone else wanna join in?" Everyone else looked around for a few seconds until several others reluctantly stepped forward nodding their heads. "Alright then, Ichika you mind if we move the Byakushiki over to where the tools are? It'll be easier there."

"Y-yea sure," he replied while he got in the Byakushiki to move it. Once he got out, Arthur slapped his hands together.

"My turn now..." he whispered to himself as he summoned Gabriel Striker.

* * *

Cecilia kept trying to bombard the right area while she flew around, but she just couldn't get it right. _This is aggravating... why can't I ever just hit the target?_ She released the bits once more while a holographic target in a flat diamond-like shape appeared down near the ground of the arena. Cecilia narrowed her eyes at the center of the target, then pictured in her mind a single drop of water, followed by a splash of it. The bits suddenly leaped into action as they zoomed forward until they surrounded the target and lit it up with overwhelming amounts of beam fire. Cecilia finally cleared her mind while calling the bits back. The hexagonal shapes making up the target, were mostly missing around the center, which made her feel slightly more confident.

_ Alright now, let's try this again..._ A picture of a pyramid pointing forward made Blue Tears take off while she angled it into a turn. She tried to maintain the pyramid in her mind, while imagining the drop of water again. The bits released once more, this time however, their movements were more hap-hazardous. They moved around erratically, while maintaining somewhat of a circular formation as they zoomed in on the target once again. Once they began firing though, she could tell the shots were going nowhere near where she wanted them to, so she called them back in frustration as she landed on the ground with her head hung in disappointment.

"What's this? Never thought I'd see you giving up," she heard Rin snicker while she flew over to her in her IS Shenlong.

"Contrary to your assumptions, I'm just taking a small breather is all," Cecilia replied in her usual confident tone.

"That's not what I would call it," Tina interrupted as she floated over beside the two of them.

Cecilia, having only just gotten out of the hospital, leered over in Tina's direction before turning around to walk away. "Something the matter?" Tina asked out of the blue.

"It's none of your concern," Cecilia replied with an annoyed voice as she took off into the sky to practice once more.

* * *

_What was that all about?_ Tina pondered to herself as she looked at Rin, who only shrugged in response. She decided to shrug it off as well for now as well. "Soooo... what's the plan for today, Rin?"

Rin materialized two large and ornately designed Scimitar blades then quickly linked them together before slamming the bottom blade in the ground. "First, we fight!" she declared and lunged at Tina.

"W-Wait, what?!" Tina stammered out as she ducked underneath Rin's first swing and dashed backwards. "You think you could warn me first Rin?!"

"I can't hear you!" Rin retorted as she charged the 'Ryuhou' Impact cannons that floated over her shoulders.

Tina stared at the yellow glow in the cannons before taking off to her right as the shots kept hitting right behind her. _This is not how I wanted to spend my afternoon..._ she groaned to herself and ascended while aiming then firing her Gatling gun at Rin.

Rin however, had different plans and spun her joined blades in front of her IS to block the incoming fire, the empty bullet casings littering the ground everywhere. "What is it your country says Tina? 'Be green and clean'?" she smirked as she charged once more towards Tina with her cannons barraging around her.

"Aww, did you come up with that all by yourself, Rin? I'm so proud of you," she joked as she de-materialized her Gatling gun to pull out her 'Scylla' Rifle. Her shots were dead-on, as Rin was forced to back off to try and come from a different angle. As the two of them kept circling around however, their concentration was cut short by Cecilia's bits shooting all throughout the middle of the two of them towards the target from earlier.

"If you two don't mind, I'm still here practicing. It's hard enough trying to concentrate without you two making all this noise, so go somewhere else if you don't mind," she complained to both of them.

Rin wanted to say something, but Tina shook her head 'no' as she descended back down to the ground. "It's not worth it Rin, let her work out her own problems. I already told you I was tired anyway."

"Yea I know, I just hate letting her have her way like that," Rin replied. "Sometimes she lets it go to her head and then we all pay the price for that."

"I can still hear you two, you know," Cecilia loudly interjected as they both started walking back to the lockers.

Tina could tell Rin was furious, but put her hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "It's fine, with those weapons she really does need mostly peace and quiet to get anything done with them."

"How do you figure that?" Rin looked over to her curiously.

"Back when Arthur and I were testing these things, we had various load-outs grafted onto them. One of them had similar weapons to those, and believe me..." her face then showed an expression of utter exhaustion from the memories of it. "I've never had so many migraines in such a short time..." she groaned while putting her hand to her forehead instinctively.

"That bad huh?"

"Oh, you have no idea... I wish you could've been there to see Arthur's reaction to them though. It was so hilarious."

Rin's eyes narrowed alongside an expression of doubt as they put their IS' in stand-by mode to enter the locker room. "What'd he do exactly...?"

"Well, for me you see, I could slightly control them to do what I want. Arthur's however, did everything except that. I remember during one testing session of them, they chased HIM around for several minutes until his energy finally hit zero. Of course, we were worried about him, but we couldn't help but share a laugh at the spectacle." Tina started laughing to herself hard enough that she had to put a hand on the wall to hold her up for a few seconds.

She finally calmed down while catching her breath enough that she could walk over to her locker near Rin's. As she was changing though, she looked over at Rin from time to time, noticing that her face seemed flustered, yet puzzled at the same time. "Rin, is something bothering you?"

"W-what? N-no, no, everything's fine," she laughed nervously. Tina decided to narrow her eyes at Rin while also getting ever closer to her while she put her hands on her waist.

"T-Tina... you're scaring me," Rin whimpered.

"Tell me what's wrong," Tina commanded with a disappointing frown.

"W-well, it's just a... how do I put it exactly?" Rin questioned to herself while pushing her fingers together repeatedly. She then took a deep gulp of air as her face changed to one full of determination. "I- I want you to help get Ichika to choose me for the double date!" she finally spat out, catching her breath with a cherry red face once her secret desire had been flushed out.

Tina could only giggle as she hugged Rin tightly. "Of course I'll help you! That's what roommates like us are for right?"

Upon finishing, she felt Rin's body relax more as she let out a deep sigh of relief. "Th-thanks," Rin stuttered while looking away with a red face.

Tina then let go as she finished getting her Academy uniform back on. While she fluffed her hair up, she grew a smile on her face. "You know, I'm sure Arthur would like it if you came along too," she chuckled.

"W-What makes you say that?"

"Just a hunch," she winked as she closed her locker and grabbed Rin's hand. "Now, why don't we go see the boys?"

"W-wait! Right now?! B-But I'm not even fully.."

"Prepared?" Tina interrupted before sighing at Rin. "If there's one thing I'm going to teach you Rin, it's that romance is impromptu at it's core, and nothing else," she grumbled while tugging the nervous Rin along.

* * *

Arthur wiped the sweat off his forehead as he finally managed to switch out the barrel on his SMG. _Note to self...omit claws from future designs..._

"Something wrong, Arthur?" Ichika's voice asked suddenly.

"Huh? Oh, uh, no I'm fine," he chuckled.

"Um, ok...is there a reason you're doing all your maintenance on your weapons with your IS out?"

"Well, the larger hands make it easier to put them back together for me," he grinned while he re-attached the weapon to the underside of his right arm with a 'click'.

"You know, that's pretty convenient," Ichika commented with a laid-back smile.

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked as he gave Ichika a curious look.

"Well, I mean like how you've got it just right there, ready to switch in."

"Your Yukihira blade is the same isn't it?"

"Well, not exactly." Ichika chuckled as Honne tapped him on the shoulder from behind.

"Hey, hey Orimu, we got your IS ready," she smiled and assumed a 'TA-DA!' stance while the girls working on Byakushiki backed away from it.

"That was fast," Ichika muttered as he walked over to it, "So what was the problem exactly?"

"Just some minor tinkering is all. Anything else you need?" she asked with a bright smile.

"Well, I guess for me I'm good, what about you Arthur?"

Arthur had been staring at a small blue screen on his HUD for several minutes until he noticed Ichika and several others were staring at him, so he minimized it with a frown. "I'm good," he replied while he put the Gabriel in stand-by mode.

Once his feet touched the ground, he started slipping back on his uniform.

"I'm still surprised you kept your flight-suit on all day."

"Thought it might be come in handy," Arthur smirked once he finished getting dressed.

"H-hey Arthur?" Honne interrupted shyly.

"Yea Honne, what's wrong?"

"Well, um... where did you get that small scar on your chest?" she asked while pointing at a small 'X' shaped mark on the right side of his lower chest.

"Actually I've been meaning to ask that too since Chifuyu made you run those laps outside a few days back," Ichika added.

"L-Let's just say I had an accident awhile back," he chuckled nervously. _Yea...an accident_ he thought to himself with a frown.

"Oh, Arthur!" everyone heard Tina's voice ring graciously throughout the hangar. When Arthur turned to see her, he noticed she was tugging along a rather embarrassed Rin with her.

"Hey, you two finished already?" he replied back.

"Yea... we got interrupted," she replied with a silly smile before pulling Rin right beside her. "Anyways... Ichika, someone has a question for you," Tina grinned while she lightly pushed Rin forward.

"T-T-Tina!" Rin groaned with the same red face she came in with. Arthur could tell it was something important since Rin couldn't bring herself to look up at Ichika, her body shaking very nervously as well while she tried to spit out the words.

"W-well... it's...just that, I...um"

"You okay, Rin?" Ichika asked out of concern. "You seem like... you're having a nervous breakdown."

"Well... in truth I..."

"Lemme stop you right there," Arthur interrupted as he knelt down in front of Rin with his hands on her shoulders. "Remember Rin, it's just a question... and last time I checked the one who gave me that footprint on my face a few days back wouldn't be scared of something as small as a question," he consoled her with a smile.

"Idiot..." Rin silently commented while darting her eyes left and right.

"L-look, I had a stuttering problem back in the day, so the best advice I can give you when you're nervous like this... just breathe slowly and deeply. It's easy after that."

After doing this several times, Rin finally summoned up enough courage to look up at Ichika, even though her face still stayed a bright cherry red. Arthur got up and stood beside Tina arms folded as Rin began to try to speak.

"I-It's just that... I thought... maybe you'd want to..." she stammered out while she kept twisting and turning one of her legs on the ground shyly.

"Maybe I'd want to...what?"

"Well, maybe you would want to...let me go with you three... to the restaurant?" she quickly cringed when she finally finished, awaiting the answer she feared wouldn't be what she wanted to hear.

"Y-You want to go... with us?"

"Well yea, you see I, uh..."

"She thought it would be a nice chance to hang out with her roommate," Tina happily interjected as she hugged Rin from behind and squeezed tightly, "Isn't that right, Rin? All of us here are your friends after all."

"Y-Yea! That's right, I just thought it would be a nice chance to spend time with friends is all!" she laughed nervously.

Ichika looked over to Arthur who only shrugged with a small smile. "Yea, sure why not?"

All of the other girls gasped when Ichika answered. "R-Really? You mean it?" Rin asked with an excited face.

"Yea, I mean, it's better than some awkward meal with someone I don't know that well," he happily replied.

"Y-Yea, that's true," she shyly replied.

"Well... if that's all done, I'm gonna get going," Arthur declared out of the blue while slapping his hands together and turned to walk out of the hangar.

"W-Wait for me! Arthur!" Tina groaned as she ran after him, leaving Ichika and Rin alone in an awkward silence.

"Those two..." Ichika muttered to himself. "They really are something else, aren't they?"

"Yea...You can really tell they enjoy each others company," Rin commented while she watched Tina wrap her arms around one of Arthur's as they walked out together. "I'm starting to think she came along just so she could be near him," she lightly chuckled.

"Maybe so..." Ichika replied before he started walking out himself. "You want to go to the cafe Rin? I'm kind of thirsty."

"Huh?" Rin replied with a shockingly flustered face. _Ichika's... wanting me to go?_ A small smile came to her face as she nodded and followed quickly after him.

* * *

"Tina... you're squeezing my arm a little too hard," Arthur groaned while he tried to keep his pace.

Tina only ignored him though while she held onto him. "Not my fault you're comfortable," she grinned. "So, what's the rest of your plans for today?"

He only sighed at her usual habit of quickly changing the subject. "Probably just... take a shower, then nap I guess. I'm not really feeling it today for doing IS- related stuff any longer."

That piqued her curiosity a bit as she perked her head up. "That's unusual... everything okay?"

"Of course, it's just like I told you earlier... everything's fine. I'd just like some rest every once in awhile. I am human, believe it or not."

"Really? I'd have never thought so," she giggled while she tightened her grip on him.

"Okay seriously, are you trying to make it to where I can't feel my arm?" he whined after a few minutes.

"Maybe," she teased as she gave him a wink. "Besides, I know you love the attention anyway."

"I love the attention huh? You've got a funny way of looking at things," he tried to mutter silently to himself. "Honestly, the last thing I'd want to do at this point is draw attention to myself."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because I never know who's watching," he finished. "It's only by a miracle that I'm even standing here and you know it. I know for a fact they're still watching me, even here. So I'd rather not get others drawn into it."

"Is that why you've been mostly distant to everyone but me these last few days?"

"Well, mostly yes. I just need to figure out who I can and cannot trust."

"Well... you do trust me, right?" she looked his direction with a somberly concerned face. He only smiled while he freed his arm from her grip and put it around her. "Of course I do. If I could trust anyone in this world, you know you would be the first." This of course brought a smile to Tina's face once more while she leaned her head near his shoulder.

"Why don't we go sit somewhere for awhile? I'm kinda tired of walking all over the place."

"All right, if you're THAT tired," He then quickly swept her off her feet to where he was carrying her like a princess.

"H-Hey! What happened to not attracting attention?!"

"Well... you said you were tired of walking," he retorted with a puzzled face. "So, wouldn't this be more beneficial to your apparently tired feet?"

She only narrowed her eyes at him with a pouting scowl. "You're being sarcastic aren't you..."

"What gave it away?" he replied grinning as he carried her off.

* * *

"Why is it I have to be the teacher of the class with the most personal users..." Chifuyu could hear Maya groan with a heavy sigh as she sipped some coffee. The two of them were in the faculty office room to go over test results, though it seemed Chifuyu was letting Maya do most of the work.

"Where did that come from?" she asked.

"Well its just, you know... you can't exactly say our class isn't somewhat more troublesome to handle because of it."

"Well, if it didn't keep you busy you wouldn't have anything better to do anyway," Chifuyu laxly replied a with a rare grin.

"That hurts you know, it's not my fault I haven't found true love yet," Maya replied giving Chifuyu an annoyed scowl.

"Keep blaming everyone else like that, and you may never find it," Chifuyu murmured while taking another sip. Out of nowhere though, a strange ring-tone started blaring in the office. Chifuyu stared down angrily while she quickly answered the phone, with Maya only smirking confidently back at her. _Act all tough, and yet you have a ring-tone like that..._ Maya smiled to herself, knowing she had won that conversation. She tried to focus back on her work, though she couldn't help but slightly listen in on Chifuyu's conversation since the voice coming from the phone sounded loud and obnoxious, yet childish at the same time. _Who in the world could she be talking to?_

"Already? That was quicker than I expected," she heard Chifuyu mutter. "Tonight?" she narrowed her eyes. "Right, got it," and with that she hung up.

"Who was that?" Maya asked while she resumed her work quickly.

"Nobody important," Chifuyu regained her usual scowl while crossing her arms.

_Yea right... didn't sound unimportant_ Maya thought with a sigh. "You think you could help me out here? I'd greatly appreciate it."

"And here I thought I was just a combat instructor..." Chifuyu shrugged before sitting by Maya. "Alright," she stretched, "Let's get this done quickly."

* * *

"A-Arthur... everyone's watching..." Tina moaned after awhile with a cherry, red face from all of the stares directed towards them. He had been walking with her like this for almost 20 minutes, yet she had no idea where he was trying to go. Though her concern faded when Arthur suddenly stopped. "A-Arthur, what's wrong?" She could feel his hands tighten slightly. "Um, hey, you're starting to hurt me a little bit..." Arthur didn't respond as he kept staring off in the distance with narrowed eyes and a stern face.

Tina turned her head to try and see what had upset him, but saw nothing return her gaze. "Hey, how do you think Kelley and the others are doing?" he suddenly asked out of the blue as if nothing had just happened, his grip lessening as well.

"Uh, they're fine I'm sure. Why do you ask now of all times?"

"No reason..." he replied quickly, leaving an awkward silence between the two before he started walking off again.

After a few more minutes had passed, Arthur had begun walking towards the stream that ran through the Academy, but halted once more when Tina kept poking him. "D-Do you think you can put me down now? It's kinda embarrassing, you holding me like this..."

"Heh, says the person who's always holding onto me regardless. Alright fine," he sighed while he set her feet back on the ground. She could tell by his expression his arms were probably feeling better now, though it made her think maybe she needed to lose some weight. _I shouldn't be that heavy should I? Maybe those midnight snacks with Rin are finally catching up with me..._ "Hey Tina."

Her concentration broken, she could only stutter back a reply. "Y-Yes?"

"What do you think about this whole situation anyway? I've never quite gotten your take on it," he said while staring off to where the stream disappeared from view.

"Y-You mean the mess you're in? You already know how I feel about it."

"No, all I know is what I can guess you're thinking. I'd rather hear your true opinion out loud."

"O-Oh... um, well I..."

"Ah, just the person I was looking for," a heavily German voice interrupted.

The two of them turned to see Laura as well as Charlotte coming down the sidewalk to them.

"Ah, hey there you two. You need something?" Arthur greeted with a relaxed smile.

"W-Well actually, do you know where Ichika is by any chance?" Charlotte asked with a slightly blushed expression.

"Speaking of which..." Laura interrupted as she walked up to Arthur then forcefully grabbed his shirt's collar to pull him down to her height. "I would kindly appreciate it if you wouldn't put my bride on the spotlight like that. I already have enough trouble keeping him faithful as it is," she threatened with a dark voice. Arthur only showed a confused expression in response. Charlotte got in between the two to ease the situation while she whispered in Arthur's ear.

"She refers to Ichika as her bride... it's just a misunderstanding you're just going to have to get used to." A few moments of silence then passed before Arthur suddenly burst out laughing as he fell to the ground backwards.

"Oh my god, you've got to kidding me!" he bellowed while he wiped a couple of tears from his eyes. "Ohhhhh, that is just too rich..."

"You know, it's impolite to laugh at others short-comings," Charlotte scolded him.

"I'm sorry, I've just never heard such a misunderstanding before... forgive me. Actually I'm curious as to why you two are walking together. I thought all of you guys in the group didn't get along with each other that much."

"W-Well, we're roommates now, you see... so it's either we get along or everyday becomes miserable," Charlotte chuckled while she pulled Laura in front of her, "Besides, she's not that bad at all."

"W-wait a minute... so I got you kicked out of Ichika's room... and into a room with...that?" he asked while pointing at Laura.

"W-Well, yes actually."

In an instant Arthur was on his knees in front of Charlotte with both of his hands cradling one of hers while he hung his head in shame. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry..." he kept muttering over and over until Tina bashed him across the head. Charlotte gasped at the spectacle before trying to make sure he was okay.

"Have some dignity please, I'd rather not be seen with an apologetic man like that..." Tina said with a disapproving face.

"I am not understanding this, what is so bad about me?" Laura questioned out of the blue.

"N-Nothing at all Laura," Charlotte replied while consoling her with a light slap on the shoulders. "Anyways, we would really appreciate it if you would help us find Ichika."

"Well, if it's to see if he'll take you along to the restaurant... you're kinda too late now," he laxly replied while he got back up on his feet.

"I... I beg your pardon?" Charlotte slightly twitched in disbelief as the words left her lips.

"Well, you see..-" Arthur tried to break the news as carefully as possible, "It seems that... he's already agreed... to another." The both of their heads instantly slumped downward while an aura of depression engrossed the two of them.

"Um, hey it's okay Miss Dunois..." Tina tried to reassure her. "B-Better luck next time, right?"

"If there is one..." she muttered dejectedly.

"This is your fault!" Laura declared as she pulled out a knife and pointed it Arthur's neck. "You shall pay for your interference!"

"Whoa whoa whoa! I told you it wasn't my-" his words were cut short when he saw Tina materialize her assault rifle at Laura with an angry scowl.

"I would kindly appreciate it if you didn't threaten my partner, as I'm sure you're well aware of both our capabilities." Laura silently growled at Tina, but backed off when she noticed Arthur had his SMG at her chest as well. "Never take your eyes off an opponent, especially when you're the one who starts the fight," he grinned with a condescending tone.

Charlotte however, was nervous from the whole situation so she tried to keep Laura near her. "S-sorry for my roommate's 'special' way of venting," she chuckled silently. "Anyways, Arthur... I'm going to need you to come with me."

"Hm? What for?"

"Oh nothing it's just um... I need to talk to you about something in private. You do not mind if I borrow him for a bit, do you Miss Tina?"

"Uh, sure I guess it wouldn't hurt... may I ask what for?"

"Like I said it's just... something private is all," she chuckled nervously while she gave Laura a hand-signal behind her back. Laura nodded before materializing her IS' right arm.

"Located... en route," she muttered as she started running off in a random direction. Charlotte then grabbed Arthur's hand firmly and ran off with him.

"O-ouch! Think you can grip any harder?!" Tina heard him yelp while he was dragged off. Though a small green light flashed slightly on the side of her watch. She partially deployed the HUD to see Arthur had sent a message saying "Rin might get caught up in something... make sure she's okay." She shook her head while she could see from afar Arthur giving her a two- finger salute as he got pulled further and further away.

* * *

"So... H-How's the drink, Ichika?" Rin asked. _Seriously?! I'm with him by myself for once and that's the first thing I say?! Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!_

"It's great! Thanks for asking," Ichika replied happily as he took another sip, "Ahhhh, I've been needing that for awhile now."

_Phew... bullet dodged!_ She thought happily to herself. "What made you so thirsty all of a sudden anyway?"

"Well... being near all of that heavy machinery and smoke from the welding machines I suppose just dries my mouth up or something, I dunno. How's yours anyway?"

"Mine, oh it's... fine I suppose," she replied in a coy manner. "So, uh... do you know where it is... we're all going exactly?"

"Hm? Actually, I'm not too sure... Arthur hasn't told me anything yet." Just as he finished though, the door to the cafe swung open hard, with everyone turning to see what looked to be a very annoyed Laura. Everyone watched as she marched over towards Ichika then forcefully grab his hand.

"As my bride, you have a lot of explaining to do," she said in a demonic tone while narrowing her eye at him.

"H-Hey!" Rin yelled as she slammed her hands on the table. "Don't think you can just take him as you please!" She was stopped however by a partial deployment of Laura's AIC. _Damn! Can't...move!_ She struggled and struggled to try to deploy her IS, but to no avail as the device held her firmly in place.

Laura, having gotten her way, smiled before turning it off, letting Rin falter down to the floor. "Do not think for an instant that you and I are on the same level, little girl."

"H-Hey now ladies, why...don't we all just relax and have some cake, okay? I'm sure it'll make everything better..." Ichika murmured nervously.

"No time!" Laura declared, and just like that, they were gone out the door in a flash.

_Damn that Laura... she won't win! Not this time!_ Rin barreled out the door, only to crash into Tina. "Ow! Rin, what have I told you about watching where you're going?"

"What do you mean? You've never mentioned anything like that..." she shook her head as quickly got back up.

"Well then consider this the start of a long scolding," Tina groaned as she got back up while rubbing her forehead.

"Save it for later! I'm in a hurry!" She took off, but was caught by Tina quickly.

"Did she come here Rin? Where's Ichika?"

"That's what I'm about to find out!"


	9. Misunderstood Intentions

**Chapter 9: Misunderstood Intentions**

"Okay Charlotte, why are we in the locker room?" Arthur curiously asked as she finally let go of his hand. He tried to rub it to make the slight twinge of pain go away, but felt extremely uncomfortable with Charlotte scowling nearby.

"I understand that you made all of this transpire. So, in truth, Laura was partially correct. Now tell me, who is it that Ichika decided to go with?"

"Um, first I need to understand... is this an interrogation?"

"In a way, yes. Though your cohort should be arriving shortly."

"M-My...what? W-Wait a minute now, this isn't all over the restaurant thing is it?"

"But of course it is! What else would be so important now?!"

"R-Right, sorry I questioned your judgment," Arthur chuckled nervously as he couldn't help but shrink away from her angry presence. _God... and I thought Tina was scary. This girl has my spine shivering on a level I didn't even know was possible! There goes the kind angel I thought was real..._ he tried to look around for a way to escape the situation, but was interrupted when the door swung open to Laura dragging Ichika in, then throwing him beside Arthur.

"Ow! Hey, do you think you could cool it a bit?! I didn't even do anything wrong!" Ichika whined as he got back up. "Huh? Arthur? What're you doing here?"

"Your guess is as good as mine..." Arthur shrugged with a frown, "Though I'm sure it's just these kind ladies here would like to show us some hospitality-"

"You will remain quiet!" Laura yelled as she materialized a beam saber pointed at him.

"R-Right... point taken..." he edged back in utter defeat.

"Now," Charlotte said while clearing her throat, "Ichika... don't you think it's maybe just a bit too quick to accept the first person who wants to go along with you?"

"W-wait... THAT'S what this is all about?!"

"Of course." the two girls calmly replied in unison.

"In that case I guess I'd better be going then..." Arthur mumbled, though was yet again stopped by Laura, this time with her AIC.

"I do not think so..."

"You two are more terrifying than I imagined..." He grumbled silently.

"You are the cause of this misunderstanding, so of course you must be present to mend the situation," Laura finished as she turned off her AIC once more.

"Wait? Why is this situation so important?" Ichika asked out of concern. "I-I thought this was just a meeting of friends to try out high-end food!"

Charlotte, Laura, and Arthur couldn't help but fall to the ground from the sheer impact of the words meeting their ears. "W-wait... why's everyone acting as if I said something wrong again?"

Arthur only sighed as he got back up while rubbing his head. "You are unbelievable, dude...just... I feel my grasp of reality slip when I see you act like that."

"Why is that?"

"Probably because most people would understand the seriousness of the situation..." Charlotte murmured to herself.

"It's okay Charlotte," Arthur smiled as he helped her up, "One day...one day..."

"Might I ask what all of the commotion is about?" they heard ring through their ears.

They all turned to see Cecilia preparing to leave the locker room.

"Oh, uh, hey Cecilia. Why are you here?" Ichika questioned with a nervous chuckle.

"Well, if you must know, my dear Ichika... I was preparing to go give this... brutish man here, the information I though he would need."

"Brutish, eh? Sounds like it fits I suppose," Arthur laughed. "Might I presume then that all of the preparations have been made?"

"Would you expect any less from someone as talented as I?" Cecilia boasted as she handed him a slip of paper. "My servants have already set up the reservations as promised, though I must inform you that I, Cecilia Alcott, shall be joining you as well. It simply wouldn't do if I came to find out my investment was led astray, wouldn't you agree?" she smirked.

"Oh, so you found the loophole huh? You know, I think you and I are gonna get along just fine, Princess," he winked as took the paper, "You're more like Tina than I thought."

"Please do not compare me with that...brat. Also, would you kindly stop with the name-calling?"

"Wasn't aware 'Princess' was an insult, but alright. Guess I could just call you 'My ticket to a good meal'," he chuckled.

Cecilia's face turned bright red as she prepared to punch him, though Arthur's startled gaze past her made her stop. "What? Finally realizing my true beauty and elegance? Maybe now you'll learn some respect for me!" she laughed haughtily, but no response. Arthur's jaw only dropped and eyes widened while he shoved past her. "H-Hey! That was quite rude!" He ignored the banter until he got about half-way down the rows of lockers.

"A-Arthur? Is everything alright?" Charlotte asked concernedly.

"Where are you..." he muttered silently.

"I...beg your pardon?" Cecilia asked.

Arthur then suddenly fully materialized the Gabriel Striker as he pointed his SMG down a row of lockers. "Come out! I know you're there damn it! Show yourself!" He quickly started firing a spray of bullet-fire down the row until he stopped after a few seconds.

"A-Are you insane?!" Cecilia shouted as she ran up to him. "What if you hurt someone?! Don't you think you should be a little more careful with a weapon like that?!" When he turned to look at her though, his eyes looked as if sheer terror had struck them, the sides of them beginning to become bloodshot.

"Oh no... Miss Alcott, get back!" Charlotte shouted as she materialized her Raphael Revive and dashed at Arthur, tackling him to the ground. "Snap out of it, Arthur!"

"Noooo! She's here! I can feel it!" he shouted while frantically scanning his surroundings. "Please! Let me go! I have to save her!"

"She?" the other three questioned with raised brows.

"What do you mean 'she'?" Charlotte asked as she kept him pinned down.

"I can't tell you, if I do they'll kill me and take Tina away! So please... let me go!" He kept struggling and lurching left and right, until finally he managed to kick Charlotte off of him.

"Charl!"

"Charlotte!"

Both Ichika and Laura then materialized their IS' to rush to her aid. "I-I'm fine! Stay back! He doesn't mean it!" she waved her hand in front of them as she regained her footing. "Arthur... just calm down, we're all your friends here. We're not going to hurt you..."

Arthur snarled in her direction while still looking around, until finally his eyes locked onto the door to the arena. "There you are!" He yelled out with a crazy-eyed smile while crashing through the doors and wall before skidding out onto the sandy arena, where several other students who were already trying to practice looked over to see the source of the commotion.

"What's going on?"

"Hey, isn't that the new guy at our school?"

"What's he think he's doing crashing through the walls in his IS?"

Arthur walked out silently further into the arena until the others barged outside as well. "Arthur! You need to calm down! Whatever it is you're seeing, it's not real!" Charlotte yelled out to him, convincing him to at least turn around to them. His gaze that returned hers however, sent a cold shiver down her spine.

"You... there you are..." Arthur muttered while he began walking slowly towards Charlotte.

"Wha- What do you mean? Is it me you're looking for?"

"Charl, what's going on?" Ichika whispered to her.

"I think he's hallucinating something...maybe he's re-calling a traumatic experience."

"That's exactly what it is," Laura confirmed. "I've seen that look in his eyes in other people before. What's happening right now is a re-collection after seeing something he thinks is there. For now, it seems... that thing is standing where Charlotte is. If we do not wish for a fight, I suggest we play along with it."

"At last..." Arthur declared with tears of happiness welling up in his eyes. "At last, I've found you once again..." he lamented as he wrapped his arms around Charlotte. Charlotte, whose mind was racing, could only barely return the notion, hoping that it would halt this farce.

"It's okay..." Arthur whispered to her while he ran his hand through her hair. "Daddy's here now..." The very words brought a moment of shock to their faces.

"D-D-Daddy?!" Charlotte stuttered shockingly.

"Charl, is there something I should know?!" Ichika quickly responded.

"N-No! I-I have no idea what he's talking about!" she replied, her face a bright-red color from all the confusion.

"What do you mean... don't you remember me? I created you after all..." Arthur muttered as he let go of her, then placed his hands on her shoulders. "You can't tell me you've forgotten all of the talks we've had together. Or all the stories Tina used to read to you" he reminisced with a sincere smile. His eyes began rapidly blinking however, until finally he shook his head only to look surprised at Charlotte.

"Ch-Charlotte? Where did you come from?" He began looking around again frantically. "W-Where did she go? Where is she?!" He cried out as he pointed his SMG and his shields blade at both Laura and Ichika.

"Arthur calm down! Just take it nice and easy, and tell me what you're looking for!"

"I told you I can't! They'll take away everything! That's all they ever do is take and take and take! All I know is that she's here...and someone's hiding her from me!" He seemed to take a turn for the worse though when he looked in Ichika's direction. "You... You're the reason I am this way!" he shouted as he charged at Ichika, who barely managed to catch his blade with Yukihira.

"A-Arthur! Stop, it's me, Ichika!"

"Radcliffe!" Arthur only bellowed in response and began slamming his blade against Ichika's repeatedly. "I'll show you what it's like... when someone slowly takes away your humanity, you heartless bastard!" Arthur quickly kneed Ichika in his chest, and slammed the full weight on the shield to knock Ichika to the ground. Arthur then stomped one foot on Ichika's chest to pin him down quickly as he jettisoned the blade out from his shield to use it by hand.

"Dude, you need to stop! Whatever you're seeing, it's not true! Don't you see that?!"

Arthur kept panting frantically, the sweat streaming down his cheeks in loads while he pointed the end of the blade down at Ichika with a demonic grin dashing across his face. "Today... I rid the world of a curse... You took my daughter, and now, I'm taking your life!" He declared before thrusting the blade down as hard as he could only to be stopped by Laura's AIC enveloping him.

"Do not think for an instant I would let you bring harm to my bride."

Ichika kept staring however at the blade that had almost pierced his chest armor, until finally Laura released her AIC so Charlotte could kick Arthur off of Ichika and pin him down once more. "You need to calm down Arthur. It's all just a dream of sorts! An illusion!"

"B-But... he's right there! I can see him clear as day! That's too real to be an illusion!"

"Arthur, stop!" they all then heard a familiar voice ring out. Arthur looked over with a gaze of terror to see there in the hole he made stood Rin and Tina, though Rin seemed to be more confused at what was going on. Everyone watched as Tina marched calmly over to Arthur, who reluctantly de-materialized Gabriel Striker once Charlotte eased off him and fell to his knees at her command.

"Y-You don't understand... she's here... I-I can feel it! So is General Radcliffe as well!"

"I understand precisely what's happening. It's time we wipe all these memories from your mind before you lose total control again."

Arthur couldn't help but begin to feel total despair at her words until finally he felt something slowly beginning to snap. "B-But I'm...fine...don't you see? I'm still me..." he started laughing insanely. "I'm...s-still me. Please, don't take her away... I-I can't... be rid of the thought! She's all alone! She needs me! She-" his words were halted by Tina as she wrapped her arms around him tightly while she started sniffling.

"Stop it, please... Yes, you may be yourself, but you're letting her as well as your hatred of that man destroy you," she said as she eased off to where the two of them stared straight into each others eyes. His gaze had become desolate and empty, as if her very presence put his soul at rest. "From now on, I want you to, whenever you think of what you've lost... think about what you still have, okay? That's all I ask, and I know that it's the best way to fight off whatever has taken hold of you."

"B-But... you know that's impossible for me..."

"Then, for my sake could you at least try? You still have me don't you?"

"I...still have...you." his eye-lids began feeling heavy as he felt them close evermore until finally he lost all consciousness. _I...still have...her..._

* * *

Ichika had been waiting with Charlotte, Rin, Cecilia, and Laura to hear the final verdict on Arthur's condition. Unfortunately, they had been ordered to stay outside of the room; with the only people allowed in being the nurses and Tina. _Man... it feels like we've been waiting here forever!_ He thought to himself while he stretched his arms.

"I-If you are feeling tired Ichika, y-you could use my lap as a pillow if you want," Charlotte offered up with a slightly nervous smile.

"No way! He can use mine!" Rin shouted.

"I must protest this, it would simply not do unless he used mine of course," Cecilia interrupted with her usual bravado.

"I do not understand what you are all making such a big fuss over," Laura said while she walked over to sit next to Ichika, "Besides he would choose mine of course, him being my bride," she proudly declared.

"Seriously, all I do is stretch and you people go at it again... I just don't understand" Ichika replied with a deep sigh.

The mood then spiraled downward as the girls were reminded of his usual obliviousness to the situation. Though this was quickly mended when Tina stepped out of the hospital room. Her eyes were covered by her bangs while her fists curled up tightly. "I want you all..."

"Tina, is everything okay?" Rin asked.

"I want you all to forget everything you heard him say. If you ever tell anyone, I'll never forgive you. Understand?"

"I understand, but if you would, could you give us an explanation on why he's acting this way?" Charlotte inquired. "You and I both know this wasn't the first time, and it may not be the last that this happens." Everyone looked to her with surprise.

"What do you mean this wasn't the first?" Ichika interrupted, "It's the first I've ever seen him like that before."

"Tell me Ichika, you're his roommate. Have you ever heard him mumble in his sleep? Maybe a certain name that he keeps repeating or phrase?" Tina asked sternly.

"Well I mean I can tell he's had nightmares a few times, but that's normal right?"

"Not in his case" she grumbled before turning to open the door again. "I'll kindly ask you all to leave for now. The only one he'll listen to currently is me, though I can assure you he'll be up and moving within a couple of hours knowing him."

"Guess you two really are close aren't you? I mean if you're the only one he'll even talk to" Ichika commented.

"More than you know..." Tina replied, and with that, shut the door firmly behind her.

* * *

"Got any ideas on what it could be?" Tina heard Chifuyu ask the nurse.

"I believe it's a severe case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Ma'am. At least for now, his mental condition has stabilized, and he appears to be regaining consciousness slowly, but he should be fine after a few more hours of rest."

"Right, thank you for your help."

"Of course, Ma'am" the nurse replied and exited the room.

Tina pulled back the curtains to see Arthur lying fast asleep with Chifuyu sitting in a chair next to the bed. "Didn't reveal too much, I presume?"

"Naturally," she replied while she sat on the side opposite of her right next to Arthur's head. "It'd be the end of everything if they found out. I'm surprised in all actuality that he even told you Ma'am. Not to say you're not trustworthy or anything."

"It's alright, I understand your caution. By the way, do you think you can relay a message to him for me when he wakes up?"

"Uh, sure ma'am. What is it exactly?"

"Tell him 'It's ready', then hand him this data drive" she said as she handed a small USB to Tina. "I'd prefer you not peek at it since I know how important this information is to him. I'm sure he'll be more than willing to show you it once he's awake" she smiled as she got up. "Anyways, I've got some prior engagements to get to, so I'll leave him in your care."

"Thank you... Ma'am."

* * *

"Mind if we come in Ichika?" Charlotte asked as Ichika opened his dorm room's door.

"Uh, sure I suppose that would be alright," he replied and held it open for the four of them to come in. "Any particular reason you want to come in?"

"Hmph. I didn't know we really needed one just to come in your room," Rin complained, though grew a small grin as she loomed in closer to Ichika, "Or is it... that maybe you needed to hide some things before letting girls in your room? That's probably it."

"There you go jumping to conclusions again" Ichika mumbled to himself. "Seriously, what is it about me that makes you think I'm such a pervert? I don't recall ever doing such things."

"Maybe not to me anyway..." she muttered while she leaped on to the bed Arthur usually slept in. "You know, I would think it being a room with two guys in it, it would be a pigsty. Yet, it's actually well-kept by normal standards."

"That's because we both don't like stuff in our way when we try to navigate around."

"I agree with that sentiment" Laura added. "It would be tactically redundant to leave things lying about everywhere."

"Hey Ichika, what are these?" Charlotte asked. He peered around to see her near an open drawer on the upper left part of the dresser.

"What do you mean Charl?"

"Well, come and take a look..." she pulled out several sheets of paper before spreading them out on top of the dresser. When he came over to see, he was surprised at what they contained. They all consisted of different blueprints that appeared to be almost on a professional scale. The designs were obviously potential IS models, though they were far more compact than any he had ever seen.

"Whoa, d-did Arthur make these?"

"Or perhaps he stole them ,which would explain why they were hidden away" Cecilia commented.

"Doubt it. The boy seems to lack the basic skills required for stealth operations" Laura said while shaking her head. "Then again, after what happened earlier, I can't make any assumptions about what information we currently have on him. The only thing we can agree on is that he's dangerous."

"Oh? That's the first time I've ever heard you sound afraid Ms. Bodewig" Cecilia smirked.

"Pfft. Me, afraid? You must be joking. Schwarz Regen and I could end him in mere seconds."

"I don't think he's actually all that dangerous" Rin interrupted. She curled up on the bed while narrowing her eyes with a small smile. "Maybe he's just...going through hard times. He's far too nice and understanding to be some thief or deranged killer like we're making him out to be."

"Hm? What makes you say that Rin?" Ichika wondered with a raised brow.

"Did something happen between you two?" Charlotte inquired.

"I just... I just don't think he's doing this because it's his choice. What I saw back there, that wasn't the Arthur who Tina described to me during all that time she was here before him. That wasn't the one who sat on the roof and talked to me for several hours to help me feel better..."

"Sat on the roof? I thought Arthur was afraid of heights though..." Ichika replied confusedly. "Though, I do re-call him leaving the room one night. I decided not to pay too much attention since I figured he'd be right back so I went back to sleep. However, if he was up there... it would explain why he was so drowsy that morning he got his IS."

"Well, that fear would explain why he was kinda shaky while he was sitting down. He almost refused to stand up near the edge... maybe he just doesn't like looking over it."

"Hmph. A weakness like that should not be in an IS pilot, much less a representative contender" Laura scoffed. "I am honestly more surprised that they let such an unstable person like him have an IS, even if he is one of only two males in the world who can use them."

"I hate to admit it, but for once you and I are in agreement Ms. Bodewig" Cecilia nodded with an annoyed tone. "Maybe America is just that desperate for competent pilots" she added with a loud, obnoxious laugh, though no one else appeared to join in.

"I have to agree with Ms. Rin. I don't believe he stole these, I think he made these himself."

"What do you mean Charlotte?" Laura questioned while taking a second look at the drawings. "These are clearly made by professional level engineers. I refuse to believe that that boy has somehow learned this much about the IS in the short amount of time they've had him. He only did get found 2 months after Ichika after all, at least that's what the reports say."

"Okay look, we can talk about this all day, but I'd rather change the subject to something else please, okay?" Ichika interrupted.

"Alright then" Rin affirmed. "Then tell them about how you and I are going to the restaurant together" she grinned.

"It was Rin?!" the others yelled in unison. _Damn it Rin... now I've got to explain this to everyone..._ he sighed, but looked up to see the others all looming closer to him with agitated faces. _If there is a god... he better save me quickly!_

* * *

_No... you're not real! You're not real!_ Arthur yelled out as the bluish figure walked ever closer to him.

"_You can clearly see me can't you? I find it hard to believe I'm not real if I'm standing right here, father"_ she replied grinning. _"You can never be rid of me, isn't that what you told me? That you would never abandon me, that you would rather die with me than live knowing whose hands I would be left in?" _

Arthur tried to keep backing away, but found himself propping up against an invisible wall, the figure approaching ever closer. _Why?... Why are you doing this to me? What did I do?!_

_ "YOU ABANDONED ME!" _the figure yelled as it's long hairlet loose like multiple bolts of lightning. _No! I'd never abandon you! You know that! _The figure only echoed a small laugh as it finally pinned him against the wall.

_ "Then tell me, why am I not with you? Also... I have to wonder... if you would abandon even me... how long will it be before you abandon her too?"_ it whispered into his ear. Arthur suddenly felt himself falling backwards into the wall behind him as a dark sludge-like substance began clouding his vision as well as rendering his limbs numb as it consumed him further and further until finally all had gone from sight. Within this dark pit however, a voice called out to him. "**From now on, I want you to, whenever you think of what you've lost... think about what you still have, okay?... You still have me don't you?**"

_That's right_ he chuckled to himself. _For once, I haven't lost everything yet._

"_Oh? Some new-found courage I would assume?"_

He summoned Gabriel Striker's right arm to punch through as hard as he could, the light around it illuminating his surroundings enough to where he could see where to go as he struggled back out.

Arthur then raised his head to meet the figure's own with a smirk across his face while he slowly, but surely managed to break free. _More like a much needed wake-up call... I promised you I'd rescue you, and so I'll keep that promise. I'll bring you back by any means necessary. You just need to wait a little longer is all. _He finally let his eyes close as he felt the world crumble around him, until he finally woke up.

When he finally opened his eyes, he was in what looked like a hospital bed with Tina laying her head near his lap fast asleep. _Guess she was worried about me... wonder what time it is? _He looked out the window to his right to notice a full moon outside shining brightly in the sky. _Damn, I was out that long huh? _He slowly and carefully slipped out from the covers before changing back into his uniform that was hanging nearby. When he tried to sneak out however, he felt a tug near the bottom of his shirt.

"Don't think I'm letting you get away that easy," he heard a voice groan behind him.

"Perish the thought," he sarcastically replied. He watched as Tina tried to get up, but could only flail her arms upward with her eyes half-open.

"Stay with me..." she muttered in a barely recognizable voice. Arthur pulled her hands back down before picking her up in his arms.

"I would think you would be more comfortable in your own room than in here, wouldn't you?"

"As long as you're here... it doesn't matter," she smiled.

"That's my partner," he smiled before kissing her forehead, "You must be tired after worrying so much. I'm sorry I did this to you."

"You did nothing wrong," she mumbled as she snuggled in his arms. "You would do the same for me, after all."

"Alright, well we should get you back before Rin starts to worry okay?"

"B-But I wanna stay with you tonight..." Tina whined weakly.

"Tina..."

"I wanna..." she pouted with a quivering bottom lip.

"Okay, alright," he replied with a heavy sigh. "Jeez, What am I gonna do with you?" he grumbled while he laid her down on the bed.

Tina lightly giggled as he brought the covers over her to help snuggle her in. "I could think of several ideas..." she commented with a small grin and a wink.

"I'm sure you could," he said as he shook his head with a light smile. "Anyways, I'm going to get something to drink and then I'll be back."

"Wait..." she said while he started walking off. "M-Miss Orimura wanted me to give you this. She wanted me to tell you 'It's ready'." He watched her pull a small black USB drive out from her pocket before handing it to him.

"Chifuyu Orimura gave you this?"

"Yea, what's it for?"

"I may have an idea" he replied while he partially deployed Gabriel's right arm to link with the data drive. Once it linked together, a small screen showed the data uploading, until a stream of pictures suddenly filled many screens around him filled with vast amounts of data showing the construction of the object that resided commonly throughout the pictures. "I...don't believe it. She did it. She actually did it."

"What is it?"

"It's my redemption... but in time, it could also be my salvation."

"It's what?"

"Nothing" he quickly replied. "I'm going to go get that drink now, I'll be back in a while. Don't wait for me before you go to sleep now. I'm sure you'd like to have all the sleep you can get."

"Hmph. You make it sound like I can't go without sleep."

"Maybe so," he chuckled as he exited the room.

* * *

Chifuyu tapped her foot impatiently as she leaned on the tree behind her. _Damn Tabane... trying to visit this late at night... _she groaned to herself. _Could really use a drink too. Maybe I'll get some right after this. _A small smile came to her face, before it disappeared completely when she heard a familiar voice nearby.

"Chiiiiiiiiiii-Chaaaaaaaannnnnnn!"

'BAM!' Chifuyu's hand held back the mysterious assailant until she pushed back and the strange person fell down with a thud, then it spontaneously got back up again."Hi-Hi, Hidey-Ho! Did you miss me oh so?" the assailant yelled out in a peppy, energetic tone.

"Shut up Tabane..." Chifuyu grumbled under her breath.

"Aw, that's mean Chi-chan! We haven't seen each other in so long and that's how you greet me? You're just too cruel for words" Tabane pouted. "But that's why I love you so much!" she happily exclaimed as she hugged Chifuyu tightly.

"L-Let go Tabane!" Chifuyu grunted while she slowly struggled out of Tabane's tight grip. Tabane finally gave way as she slumped back up.

"Hmph" she said with a whimper. "And here I thought you would be happy to see your bestest best friend in the world..."

"Enough with that; Did you bring it?"

"Well, yes and no" she replied with a slight giggle.

"Care to elaborate?" a random voice echoed from behind them. When they both turned, they saw Arthur walking through the bushes surrounding the trees to them.

"Chi-chan... we have an intruder" Tabane whispered with a smirk while she hid behind Chifuyu.

"Tabane... that's the boy who you made that machine for."

"So who's this Miss Orimura?" he asked while pointing at Tabane.

"You look like you only just got up. You sure you want to be doing this so soon?"

"If this is what I think it is, my mental health at the moment should be the least of my worries. So who's that... eccentrically dressed person behind you?"

Chifuyu could feel the tension increase in the air as Tabane slowly peeked from around her like a curious cat, but ever so slightly cautious as she scanned the boy. "Chi-chan, are you sure this is him?"

"For what purpose would I have to lie to you in the middle of the night?"

"So we could snuggle" Tabane quickly replied with a chuckle, but was silenced by Chifuyu bashing her skull hard. "Owwwwww! I didn't come here to just get abused you know? I'm so alone in this world where no one loves me..." Tabane whimpered with a sniffle, though Chifuyu paid it no mind.

Arthur's small laugh interrupted their banter as they both stared in his direction with puzzled looks. "Something funny to you, boy?" Tabane asked with a fake smile.

"You two are better than television I swear," he cried while wiping a tear from his eye. "So seriously, this is...who exactly?"

"Ugh, the nerve!" Tabane scoffed while she marched over in front of Arthur. "How could you not recognize the oh so fabulous and most wonderful super genius in the world?"

"Super genius? What's that supposed to mean?"

Tabane only sighed in response. "You're partially an IS engineer... and yet you don't know who I am. Fine, allow me to introduce myself." Tabane quickly got into position before twirling around in a spastic fashion and curtsying his way. "I'm Tabane the super genius! Pretty cool meeting a celebrity huh?"

"W-wait...you're THAT Tabane Shinonono?!"

"The one and only!" she happily replied.

Several silent moments passed until Arthur could only barely manage to look Chifuyu's way with a puzzled gasp. "Seriously... am I getting punked? I-Is there some camera watching me to see how badly I fall for this?"

"Not quite the reaction I expected..." Tabane grumbled as she put her hands on her hips. "What's not to believe? Do I not look the part?"

"W-Well... do you want me to be honest?"

Tabane gave him a scowl Chifuyu could tell made him feel more and more nervous while Tabane kept leaning closer to him. "Tabane, I think it's time to show the reason you've come tonight."

"Always straight to the point... you never change Chi-chan."

"I've been told it's one of my better qualities" Chifuyu answered back with a calm smirk.

"Alrighty then, to start the show... why don't we all look at the full moon we have tonight?"

"The moon? Why the moon?" Arthur asked curiously.

"If what I'm suspecting is right, you'll see," Chifuyu sighed. She watched Arthur peer closer at the moon until it seemed he finally caught sight of what her and Tabane saw falling towards them. In a split instant, a strange object rammed into the ground near the both of them, covering the area in dust. _Like I said kid... she's not one known for subtlety._

"W-What the hell just happened?! What did you do you crazy lady?!" she could hear Arthur yelling out.

"Hush your mouth, or I'll take back your new toy!"

_Great... these two are getting off to a good start_ Chifuyu thought to herself with a groan. "Cadet, use your IS to clear the smoke."

"No need Chi-chan!" Tabane replied as the dust cleared almost instantaneously. When Chifuyu looked closer, she could see an egg-shaped pod using the propulsion jets on the outside to clear the dust. "And heeeeeerrreeeee we go! My newest creation!" she declared as a loud hiss emanated from the pod while it slowly opened up into thirds as the shell pieces hit the ground with a soft thud. The machine on the inside appeared to bring Arthur to his knees since he couldn't believe what it was.

Inside was a machine that wasn't quite as exquisite or as tall as most IS. To Chifuyu it actually looked slightly less advanced than the current new IS models countries were making. The strange machine had white-colored arms and legs that weren't as rounded as others, though they retained a rectangular-like shape as Chifuyu noticed they all seemed to have large silver coated cables on the inner parts. The chest itself was a light-blue color with small strip-like golden-lined vents along with what looked to be a green circle on the center that the chest armor pieces clamped around, as well as having what looked to be a couple of golden antennae on the upper chest, whose function Chifuyu could not make out at the moment. The shoulders had external bluish armor as well that jetted out over them in a broad, yet sleek fashion. For all she could see though, it's overall design appeared to be more compact than most IS, as it's legs were not huge and bulky like most IS' for the PIC. "That's quite a look, now where are it's weapons?"

"Oh, uh...see about that," Tabane said with a nervous chuckle, "See without that 'thing' on it's back... I couldn't exactly get the weapons ready. So for now all we've got is the basic frame. Though I'm worried about just this bit as well."

"Why is that?" Arthur asked.

"Well...to make the feet this small for the maneuverability it offers, I had to miniaturize the PIC, which is not all that easy. With that in mind, the feature itself is slightly unstable and requires live testing. So I figured I'd bring you what I have so far so you could test it out while also maintaining it."

"It's 'unstable'? Well, I guess suddenly miniaturizing the tech would have that chance of error... so what was wrong with the power source on the back?" Arthur observed as he walked around the sides of the machine, his eyes shining brightly, yet meticulously at everything they could find.

"Well... I just don't know how to make it," she replied with a silly smile. "It's not like you gave me something that's already been invented. The tech doesn't exist kiddo... at least to my knowledge." Arthur looked slightly dejected until he partially deployed his IS's right arm to start fiddling with it's GPS.

"If that's the problem, then I understand...now take a look here," he replied in a serious tone, "This address here should have what you're looking for. Tell the man who lives there his son needs grandfather's old journal. That's where I first learned of that sort of technology. Get those notes and you should be ready to go, and while you do that I'll test this thing like you want... and probably end up making the weapons too."

"Ohoho, so you do know how to make things instead of just draw them, huh?" Tabane asked excitedly, before getting him in a headlock, "Chi-chan, can I keep him?!"

"Hm, that's unlike you. Since when did you start becoming so friendly with other people, Tabane?"

"I'm only not friendly to people I don't deem important. You know that Chi-chan," she giggled.

"Um, pardon for interrupting... but you're choking me..." Arthur struggled to say until she finally let go. He spent a few moments coughing and catching his breath before finally walking up to touch the machine. However, once he did, it seemed to make him jolt back a bit.

"Something wrong?"

"Just... accepting that it's real metal is all. You have to realize this machine has been stuck in my head for at least 5 years... I've always wanted to see it in reality, but I just can't believe it's here."

"Well, then why don't you take it for a quick spin? If you just remove the core from your current IS and transfer it to this one, you should be more than capable of doing it."

Arthur looked at his chest while he put his hand to it, but only shaking his head in response. "I...can't do that."

"Explain, cadet."

"I can't... they're listening and watching... if I tell someone... then I'm a goner. Look, all I can do for now is help maintain the machine, but unfortunately I can't fly it."

"You just said you would test it though, did you not?"

"I meant I'll try to run some tests maybe with someone else as the pilot... maybe Tina can, after all she's always been more skilled than I am. However, I... can't leave this IS."

"You're not making any sen-"

"Did they rig your core to explode if you tried to take it?" Tabane interrupted.

"Wha- But... how...?"

"Please kid, I just told you I'm a super genius, didn't I? Come over here a second and bring out your IS for me."

"B-but... what if they're watching and remotely detonate it here and now? They'd be getting rid of two big thorns in their side, wouldn't you think?"

"Well... they could. However, then they'd never be able to learn my secrets about the IS. So wash away that negativity and get over here!" she declared with a serious, yet confident expression across her face.

"Yes ma'am..." he sighed as he followed her orders.

"Hee-hee, you're too easy kiddo. Now just stand still and Dr. Tabane will do all the work for you" she said with a happy grin while she went to work typing at incredible speeds on the holo-keyboard that appeared in front of her. "Ha! You call this security?! I could do this in my sleep!"

"That certainly doesn't help my confidence in my computing skills..." he murmured to himself.

"You can't help it, kid. After all I am above and beyond the greatest."

"Quite the modest one, aren't you?"

"I don't see the problem. Modesty after all is only making it seem like you yourself are not so great so others don't feel inadequate. I think being a genius is a great thing and should be treated as such."

"Yep, you haven't changed at all..." Chifuyu grumbled as she walked up to the Gabriel. "So... your countrymen think they can get away with trying to detonate a bomb in MY classroom, do they?!" she angrily questioned with a crazed grin on her face. "I can see why you hold a grudge against such people..."

"Well, if you understood exactly how much I've done for them, you would see why they see me as a loose end that needs to be either tamed or eliminated."

"They want you 'tamed' eh? That's a strong word to use."

"That's what happens when you're an IS pilot. Your country sees you as nothing more than a number... no matter what gender you are. As long as they get their data and advancements, people's lives are meaningless to them. When one refuses to blindly submit though, there are... complications."

"Yea... seems like my invention has really shown off the dark side of people huh?" Tabane added while she finished up typing. "And there-we-go. You should be safe and sound now!" she yelled out excitedly.

"Th-That was quick!"

"Well duh, of course it was... who do you take me for? A newbie? By the way don't answer that."

"O-Of course... anyway" he slowly began to ease out of the IS until finally he hopped onto the ground with a thud. "So, you're sure it's disabled now?"

"Would I lie to you?"

"Well, I don't exactly know you much."

"Just trust me, kay?"

"Alright, here goes nothing. Gabriel: Release code Alpha 2-0-1-Genesis."

**"Code recognized... Opening hatch to IS Core, recommend caution."**

"Duly noted, now please carry out the command."

**"Roger," **the machine's main computer responded as a few hisses were let out over the leg armor components as the chest-guard slowly folded out as if a pilot were on-board. Within the frontal chest-piece, a small slot opened to reveal a small black box with a yellow glow to it. **"IS Core has now been separated from suit network."**

Chifuyu watched as Arthur took a big gulp before slowly and carefully putting his hands around the core, the sweat on his forehead appearing to fall in large drops since he knew all too well what would happen if Tabane's hacking hadn't fully worked. Chifuyu however, knew better than to doubt Tabane's abilities with computers, so she quickly grabbed the core out from the slot.

"Whoa,whoa,whoa be careful! What if something had happened?!" Arthur stammered out nervously.

"The only thing happening here is you dramatizing the moment! Anyways, let's get this thing going already. After all, some of us will need some sleep for tomorrow."

"Alright, alright sheesh." He walked over to the machine, though he confusedly looked all around it. "You didn't seem to put the place for the core where I had planned it to be Ms. Tabane."

"It's just Tabane kid, and it's in the center of that green part."

"R-Really?! But I thought that would eventually be apart of-"

"Save the technical details for later, after all it's not quite finished remember?"

"R-right..." he sighed as he motioned his hand on the center of the green circle. A scan appeared to happen as the IS began to glow intensely in the spot, before a similar small slot opened in the center. Arthur carefully slid the core into the slot, which upon receiving the core, immediately closed tight as the machine began to hum to life.

"Alrighty then, time to get in it for me. I need to make the fitting adjustments now, so hurry, hurry."

"Right, I understand." The glow from the IS seemed to blind him slightly, but he managed to slip into the center while putting his arms and legs into the proper slots as the chest and back pieces latched tightly onto him, as well as a pair of more human-like hands coming out of the arms instead of the usual IS claws. "It... fit's almost like a dream. I barely even feel the weight at all."

"I didn't know you even felt weight from IS limbs to begin with..." Tabane frowned.

"W-well, you know what I mean," he replied with embarrassment.

"Of course, anyways, let's finish this up. I feel this is all taking too long," she giggled while she went back to work typing again. "Your information has been provided to me by Chi-chan over there by the way, so you don't need to tell me anything," she added with a perverted smirk.

"Doesn't bother me at all... for all you've already done for me, that shouldn't be a concern."

"Glad you appreciate what comes your way- and done!"

"Y-you really are just too much when it comes to this stuff..."

"What can I say? I'm just fabulous!"

Chifuyu shook her head while she watched Arthur happily sigh at Tabane as he prepped to take-off. He looked her way really quick though, to give her a thumbs up._ Just get going... dumbass. _

"Alright, I'm taking off!" he shouted excitedly as he took off into the sky.

* * *

Tabane put her hands around her eyes like binoculars as she watched Arthur burst off into the sky, the jet stream from his hands emanating a double helix shape as he spiraled upward. "You like how it handles, kiddo?"

"Yea, this thing's magnificent!" she could hear him yell over the comm with a happy chuckle, "It handles like a dream as well!"

_Hm? It shouldn't be so stable at the moment_ she thought to herself puzzlingly. _Let us see how long he can keep it that way though..._ her mind raced as a small grin started to form. "Alrighty buddy, bring it around for a landing, however extreme you want."

"Huh? I just took off though... let's see if I can maneuver it well in a high-speed fashion at least."

"Cadet, you need to remember we're trying to not make a scene here. This is just a quick test, and since Tabane knows the pros as well as the cons the most, do as she says," Chifuyu ordered.

"Alright, I'm coming back," he said with a deep sigh. Though she heard a slight snicker in the background, which made her weary of his next action.

"Don't do something flashy kid... Last thing we need is getting Tabane all excited."

Tabane herself looked over to Chifuyu with a devilish smile, which she could tell agitated Chifuyu. "You know, he's just like you were back then. Why can't you still be that happy about things?"

"Because I can see the consequences of my actions now," she scowled in return.

"Ouch, sounds like I hit a nerve there. Better be careful from now on I suppose," Tabane replied slyly, "Anyways, is everything still working fine up there?"

"Yea! I'm not having any trouble at all so far! I'm starting to wonder if there ever really was a problem!" Arthur yelled back.

_Strange... He's been up there for a few minutes and still no signs?. Hmm... _"Hey kiddo, try an ignition boost, but stay near the ground kay?"

Arthur appeared to follow instructions as he circled around while barely above the ground to come zooming right at them. Though as soon as the machine and him came past her and Chifuyu she could hear the two of them crash into the ground, then turned to see him barrel rolling sideways while hitting the ground repeatedly until finally he dug his hands deep into the dirt beneath and managed to bring himself to a stop.

"The hell just happened?!" she could hear him complain as he struggled to get up.

"Oh please, don't act like you're hurt... you can't get hurt behind an IS' shielding silly!"

"I just about broke too many different bones in my body trying to recover from that stunt you had me pull!" he angrily replied while marching over to her.

"Hey, hey I told you didn't I? The PIC is still malfunctioning at times," she happily said while twirling her fingers with a blindly cheerful face, "Why else would I suddenly have you do an ignition boost while close to the-" BAM!

"Owowowowow! Chi-chan, stop being so mean!" Tabane yelped while cradling the top of her head. "That really hurts a lot you know..."

"Then don't put my students in danger," she coldly responded with an overwhelming presence over Tabane, "Or next time I could make it hurt more, if that's what you're into."

"Uh, no no no no, I'm fine with this," Tabane chuckled nervously while backing away from the two of them slowly towards the pod she had come in. Once she felt her feet touch the metal though, she quickly hopped back in and had it close almost instantly. "Anyways, gotta go! See ya later! Buh-bye!" she yelled into the microphone for the speaker before she had the pod blast back off into the sky. _Phew... that was close._ She thought to herself while she looked at the address the boy had given her. _A shame really, I've already forgotten his name..._ _Oh well! Probably wasn't that important a detail anyway!_ She figured to herself as she sat down in a seat that folded out from the floor.

_Now to see where these coordinates go..._ she thought while quickly typing them into her pod's global GPS. _Ohohoho, so this is where the kid's from._ She grinned to herself while looking closer at the location. _I'll make sure to give him a greeting from home when I return. Always did want to try the cowgirl look at least once in my lifetime._ "Computer!"

/**Yes, Miss Tabane?/**

"To Texas!" she yelled with a giggle as the pod took off towards its next destination.

* * *

"Well that was short," Arthur muttered to himself as both Chifuyu and him watched the pod blast back up into the sky.

"Yep, I told ya she wouldn't be exactly as you suspected, didn't I?"

"Well, yea that's true I suppose..." he grumbled while he walked over to put his hand on the Gabriel, "Though I seriously doubt you could've put it into clear enough words for me to understand from what I can see."

"Putting the subject of Tabane's attitude aside, what are you going to do with that thing now that you have a new machine?"

"Well... I could probably have it stored somewhere here, right? I mean I can still use it for spare parts for Tina's IS. Save her the trouble of getting replacement parts."

"That's true," Chifuyu agreed before she walked over to him. "Now that that's all over though, there's something else you'll need to know."

"Hm? What's that?"

"Well, when you went on a rampage earlier... something happened that's going to have to warrant punishment."

"Oh, is it about the wall I went through? That's understandable then," he replied non-chalantly as he took his hand off the Gabriel and de-materialized the IS he was in.

"Well yes there is that, but you did something else," she said in an ominous tone while putting a hand on his shoulder, "While you were in whatever trance took over your mind, you almost killed a fellow student you see. I, nor the academy, can just turn a blind eye to that."

Arthur felt a slight tinge that froze him still in horror for a moment as she said that."W-Wait a second... I did what now?"

"Don't make me repeat myself kid. You need to get this 'problem' of yours under control before someone else gets hurt. If you can promise me that, then perhaps I can grant you this workspace that you need."

"Isn't that why you would have me isolated to begin with?"

"It is, and the only reason we're not sending you back to America in the first place is because you told me of your situation. I don't like sending people to their deaths unnecessarily."

Arthur drooped his head down while looking at his new IS' stand-by form dejectedly. "I still don't know why you're doing this all for me Miss Orimura, but... thanks... for looking out for me I mean."

"Don't mention it kid, just wait until after class tomorrow and I'll have Maya take you to the place, alright?"

"Maya? You mean Miss Yamada?"

"Yes, your teacher. Anyways, you had better get going for now. We're both not going to accomplish anything just standing here and talking."

"R-Right..." he agreed half-heartedly while he started walking away, however something came to his mind which made him stop. "Hey, Chifuyu?"

"It's Miss Orimura," she growled with a scowl, "What is it?"

"The Striker will be taken to this 'new place' of mine, right?"

"I thought we already went over that. Besides, you really think I would just leave this giant hulking thing out here?"

"Just making sure is all," he replied while waving to her, "Do you want me to come to class tomorrow? Or would it be better not to?"

"You come to class, moron. I don't care how much you know, you will not miss a day of my class, unless the excuse is understandable."

"Now you're confusing me... do I still come during this isolation period, or just tomorrow?"

"Just tomorrow is all, afterwards you'll be put in isolation for two weeks. Make good use of the time while you can."

"Understood," he replied as he walked off to the dorms. As he kept walking though, he suddenly remembered something important. _Oh crap... I forgot about Tina!_ He turned to start running towards the medical building as fast as he could. _Hope she's not too pissed I was gone for a little while..._

* * *

_That's a long time to get a drink..._ Tina thought to herself irritatingly. _Seriously, this isn't how __I had planned spending a night together with him._ She could only scowl at the situation as she crumpled the covers together near her face. _I hope he's okay at least... maybe he just needed to use the restroom. Or... maybe it's happening to him again._ She could still remember the dread in his eyes when she told him to 'wipe her from his mind.' _I guess he could never truly be rid of RION even if he wanted to _she sighed. _I still remember the day he first introduced me to her... it seems like a lifetime ago since then, though I can still remember those exact words she said to me. 'Take good care of my master for me.'_ She giggled to herself at the thought of Arthur being some high and mighty 'master' of anything.

A few more minutes passed by slowly before she finally decided to get up. _Something's definitely going on... it's been almost an hour now, yet still he hasn't come back._ She quickly slipped on her shoes as she made her way to the door. When she opened it however, she bumped into Arthur carrying 2 canned drinks with him. "Oh, hey Tina. Something wrong?"

"Uh...um. Y-you weren't... troubled at all were you?"

"Troubled? Why would I be troubled?" he asked while raising an eyebrow.

"W-well, it's just you were gone longer than I thought you would be. So, of course like any caring partner, I... wondered if something had happened to you," she chuckled nervously.

"Oh, you mean if I saw them again? Nah. Just needed to check with Chifuyu on that thing she gave you."

"Oh? Care to enlighten me?"

"After you have something to drink of course. I'm sure you're parched," he replied while happily handing her the drink.

"Thanks," she replied with a smile as she took a sip. "Mmm, grape-flavored," she said as she licked her lips.

"Thought you'd like that one the most. Anyways, have you been waiting here awake this whole time?"

_Of course I have... that's what couples do for each other, right?_ Tina started to blush slightly once he asked the question, but reluctantly put on a happy face for the sake of not worrying him. "W-Well I kinda was... I took a short nap, then woke up to see I was still alone so I was just about to go looking for you is all hehehe." _Yea... that'll do for now _she reassured herself as she took another sip.

"I see... well I should also let you know that I'm going to be put in a solitary place for a while."

This made her gulp down what she was drinking in surprise. "W-Wait, what? You suddenly just come back after being gone so long and just... drop a bomb like that on me?"

"Well, according to Chifuyu it's punishment for damaging the arena the way I did, and also something about almost killing a student..." the look on his face changed over to one of regret as he finished his sentence. "Tina... what did I do? Who did I almost kill?"

"You mean you didn't know who it was?"

"No... all I saw was General Radcliffe mocking me, and all that went through my mind was ending his life... without even fathoming if it was real or not." He tightened his grip on his soda, which crumpled together while oozing out the liquid inside, until he finally relented and just threw it away. "Here I thought just the ones of RION were bad enough, now I'm having ones of that bastard..." she could see several tears fall to the ground as he punched the nearest wall as hard as he could. "So... who was it?"

She sighed with a frown since she knew how much he would be hurt no matter who it was. _At least it wasn't me, lord knows what he would do if he knew something like that had happened. _"W-Well, it was..um..."

"Tina, please... I need to know."

"Well, uh... it was..." she closed her eyes to brace herself for a loud outburst she knew would come. "It... was Ichika." she said while slowly opening her eyes to see Arthur shaking his head in disdain. "A-Arthur..."

"As if I haven't hurt enough people already with the things I've done... now I've broken the peaceful tone of this place! Damn it, I'm such a careless idiot!" He tried to punch the wall again, but Tina quickly grabbed his hand and gently put her own within its grip.

"It's not your fault... you couldn't help it Arthur, you know that as much as I do."

"But they don't!" he yelled while looking angrily at her, "Honestly, I had no choice but to take up Chifuyu's offer because not only do I have a machine to work on, I would have also had to deal with looking at their frightened faces here..."

"Wait... take up her offer? You just said it was a punishment though, didn't you? And what do you mean a machine to work on? You already have the Striker, don't you?"

"It partially is and partially isn't. I decided to extend the solitary part because I need to obviously be away from people. As for the machine part... well." He pulled out a white leather glove with patches of blue underneath the fingers and the center of the palm then slipped it on. "This is my new IS' stand-by mode. It's different, to say the least."

"W-Where did you get a new IS all of a sudden? What did you do with the Striker?"

"I put it in storage here. Don't worry, it's going to be in the area I'll be isolated in. At least there I can keep an eye on it."

"B-But how did you switch IS just like that?! I mean, wasn't there a-" she quickly slapped her other hand over her mouth. _No, no, no, no, no! Damn it, I shouldn't have let that slip! _

"Wasn't there a...what, exactly?" he inquired while narrowing his eyes.

"N-nothing, nothing at all." she giggled nervously as she pulled his hand. "H-Here, why don't we just go to sleep? I'm sure we'll both feel much better in the-" she was interrupted by Arthur putting his other hand on her shoulder. _Eek! Please, please, please, please don't tell me he's figured it out! _She thought to herself nervously while feeling her body breaking into a cold sweat.

"What is it you know Tina? Have you been keeping something from me about the Striker?"

"Y-Yup! That's it! You figured it out!" she laughed nervously while putting her hands behind her back, "I'm not a natural blonde, hahaha! Had you fooled there, didn't I?" she finished with a fearful, yet confident smirk.

"What does your hair color have to do with the Striker?" his eyes after his question though, confirmed her fears.

_Crap... he knows... oh no, what do I do? What do I do?_ "L-Look Arthur, i-it's not what you think."

"You knew about my core being turned into a makeshift bomb, didn't you..." he asked while backing away slowly from her, his hand leaving hers almost instantly. She tried to grab it back, but almost fell forward doing so, while Arthur looked at her with a bewildered face. "You- You're not Tina... Tina would never do this! She would never make me into some kind of suicide bomber!"

"N-No! You don't understand!"

"Oh, really?! I don't understand huh? Tina, do you realize how many people could've gotten hurt if I had to just randomly check on the core one day because, hypothetically, it could have had some problems?! Do you truly understand just how dangerous that is?! If that had happened, how could you explain to those families, including my own, that you didn't know it would end up like that huh?!"

"L-Look, just listen, it's not like that at all!" she whined while she felt the situation tumble out of control.

"Oh, it's not like that, is it? Well, last time I checked you had the Striker sent here because, according to you, your uncle who owns the company that funded the Gabriel project back in America not only wanted me to continue testing it, but to also give me something to call my own here, or was that all a lie?!"

"A-Arthur, please stop and listen for a moment!" she cried out as the water began to well up in her eyes.

"Why should I?! So you can tell me that everything's going to be alright while you've had a fucking bomb strapped to my chest?!"

Tina somberly took a few steps back once he finished that sentence. The words cut through her like a seething hot knife that wouldn't stop burning. _ Why... cant you understand?!_

"I-It was for your own good!"

"For my own good?!" he laughed with a sarcastic tone. "In that case, why don't I just go to every innocent person in the world who's held hostage with bombs on them and tell them it's for their own good! Would that please you then?!"

"Well, maybe you should've thought things out before you decided to betray everything you knew!"

"Ohhhh, here we go! The root of all our problems!" he yelled while flailing his hands in the air, "Well listen here, I wouldn't have even had to consider doing such a thing if they hadn't betrayed me in the first place! Besides, who are you to talk against betrayal considering what you've just admitted to?!"

"Well at least I don't blame others for the position I'm in!" she yelled as loud as she could. Tina could tell at least that shut him up, but cut very deep. She took in a deep breath to calm herself down so she could think clearly. _Too late to stop now... even though this has needed to be said for a while now. _"Ever since I've first met you, all you've ever done is blame someone else for the situations you've been in. Well, have you ever considered the possibility that maybe it's your fault you're in them?!"

"Like for what? Tell me one possible thing to where it wasn't caused by them in the least!"

"Fine then! Maybe we'll start with the fact it's your fault for stumbling upon the testing IS to begin with! If you had not found it, maybe you wouldn't have ever been in your current situation to begin with!"

"I would rather be here than back in that social hellhole I called a home!"

"Which by the way, since we're on the subject of origins, why is it I've been able to tell you all about me, yet you rarely tell me anything about yourself?! It's almost like I'm talking to some doll half the time considering I know very little about you other than your personality, which you claim isn't even the real you!"

"That's because I refuse to show anyone in the world how I really am ever again!" He yelled right back at her, his eyes showing rage and frustration that appeared to have been held back for a long time.

Tina gritted her teeth for a moment, but felt her body tense back down once he had said that. _Not even me? Not even after all I've done for you? You can't just... give me a chance? _She tried to wipe her eyes clean of the tears that kept running, but couldn't stop them no matter how hard she tried. _I'm such a fool... to ever think that maybe, just maybe... you were different. _"Fine then! If that's how you feel. Then how about we just end it here, Arthur?!" she shouted while materializing her Gabriel Archer's arm along with one of its knives.

"Hmph... so you're just going to kill me, huh? Then go ahead," he calmly replied while spreading his arms out to look like a human shield.

She whimpered while she bit her lip for a second, but tightened her grip on the knife. "I'll do it... You know as much as I do our leaders would rather see you dead anyway."

"So they can dissect me like some kind of lab rat, right? Then tell me..." he said while staring straight into her eyes, "If they find out why I can pilot the IS... and somehow mass-produce that. Will you take responsibility for all those innocents who will die in the ensuing flames of war?"

"W-What?"

"You know as much as I do that the men of this world want their 'higher' social standing back. Before the IS came and shattered away any kind of competition of weaponry that could equal it, countries had constant technological races with others. In their armies, both men and women fought side by side, knowing that any of them could be the strongest of their forces. When the IS came though, men lost their social standing to women since they were the only capable pilots. So of course in response, the men in positions of power have been biding their time, waiting for a chance to usurp the 'enemy' they call women and gain back their power they've held for centuries."

"Yea, so what?"

"So what? So when people like Ichika and I sprung up, we were in their eyes, the answer they had been waiting for. Nothing more than sacks of meat for them to carve open and see what's inside... Ichika was lucky enough to have a famous sister like Chifuyu who also probably helped him enroll in this academy. Me? I had nothing. Colonel Robertson at the base at least gave me a chance to prove myself. Considering he was a former comrade of my father back in Vietnam, he felt he owed it to my dad to at least try to help me survive." Tina watched as he curled his fists up, but he took a deep breath and let it out. She knew most of the tale he was about to tell, but decided to listen anyway.

"Every day was spent constantly training, constantly pushing my own limits to their breaking points, not just in piloting ability but in mechanics as well. Even then, it wasn't enough to ever fully satisfy them! With every passing day, I felt my humanity slowly leave me more and more, until I finally became a soul-less husk in a rut, doing the same thing every day."

"Stop... you don't need to say anymore," Tina said, the memory of it bearing much regret to her mind.

"At least I had Kelley there, but then along came Christina and Sarah. Then, eventually you too. I figured with you all there... maybe I could find some relief in all that was going on. You more than anyone else though!"

"Arthur, seriously... please stop."

"You were my angel, the one person I could turn to in even the worst of situations and still know that above everything else, we at least understood one another-"

"I said stop!" she yelled as she threw the knife, though luckily it only dashed past his face, leaving a small cut on his cheek. Tina looked on in horror as the blood started trickling down the side of his face. _Why... did I...? _"N-no... I... I didn't... mean to-"

"I see now I'm meant to bear another scar. Then, so long as you're working with them, I'm afraid I cannot trust you any longer." The words felt too much for her to bear as she fell to her knees and de-materialized the Archer's arm.

"Arthur, please, don't do this... You know I didn't mean-"

"It doesn't matter... you've already shown me your true colors." he frowned down at her before walking back to the room's door. "I just... I need to be alone for a while. Really though, in all fairness you should just forget about me and everything else at this point. After all... you always did complain that unneeded stress adds on weight," he then walked out, leaving her all alone in the dark as the door slammed shut.

_No...please..._ she thought to herself while wrapping her arms around her chest, her sniffling echoing throughout the room above all the noise from the outside. _Don't leave me all alone again..._ She then curled up into a ball while she slowly tried to cry herself to sleep. _What... have I done? _She lamented to herself, but her thoughts were interrupted by her cellphone ringing. She quickly fished it out of her pocket, hoping it might be something from Arthur, even though she knew there was a slim chance of that. The screen read 'Dad' which made her angry, but reluctantly she answered it, knowing exactly what to say.

**/Hey honey! I need you to do a favor for me-/**

"I don't wanna hear anything from you! Just leave me alone!" she yelled into the phone and quickly hung up, throwing it to the side as she sobbed uncontrollably until finally she felt herself slowly succumb to sleep.

* * *

_"So... looks like I was right again, eh?"_

"Shut up." Arthur muttered to himself while he continued walking down the hallway. He himself was hurting from the very words he had just uttered to Tina, but he knew that unfortunately it was too late to remedy the situation.

_"It's hilarious really... your gift for reading people with ease is a useful strength, yet also it appears to be one of your greatest curses."_

"Don't bother telling me things I already know; It won't get you anywhere."

_"And that should stop me... why?"_

"Tch. You're unbelievable," he snickered to himself as he kept edging along, though he could feel the strength gradually leaving his legs.

_"Hahaha! I can feel the very weakness in your muscles! You're truly broken without her, aren't you? Aren't you?!" _he could hear the voice in his head laughing hysterically while she kept pestering him more and more. He tried to support himself by balling his hand into a fist and hitting it sideways against the wall to pull himself along. _"Go on! Fall! Fall, damn you! Succumb to the very darkness you've created for yourself!"_

"Don't you mean what you've made me-" he tried to finish, but found himself remembering Tina's words. _"Well at least I don't blame others for the position I'm in!"_

"No... you're right, this is all my fault. Everything that's happened up until now is entirely my fault..." he finally admitted as he leaned back on the wall. His gaze however, turned to the white glove on his right hand. _That's why... I must complete this machine at all costs. From now on, the machine's capabilities matter and nothing more... _He decided to fish the note out of his pocket Cecilia had given him earlier, his deadened stare only looking at it with contempt. _How foolish I was to ever believe that I could try to make things like they were before. _He thought to himself before crumpling it in his hand, then forcing it back in his pocket since he decided there was someone else who would need it. _"So, you truly will abandon her now, won't you? That's good. This way, I'll have you all to myself..."_

"Whatever it takes to get you back, RION. I'll kill anyone who gets in my way." With that, he managed to balance himself out to continue towards his next destination. _The only way to fix anything... is get RION back first. Then, and only then, can I become the 'me' she wants me to be once more._

* * *

Ichika tried stretching across his bed as he yawned, but minced slightly from the small bruises he had received earlier. _I really wish those girls wouldn't hit me so much... even with Rin trying to defend me, it looks like I've gone and pissed everyone off again somehow. Man, I just don't understand it!_ He thought with a deep sigh before pulling the covers over himself. _Oh well, time to get some sleep I suppose... maybe I'll be able to talk with Arthur in the morning and see what was up with him earlier today._ He closed his eyes for a while, but as he was about to drift into sleep, he heard the door open.

"Uh, Hello? W-Who's there?" he asked as a small shadow reflected on the wall, but disappeared once the figure had come into full view. "Oh phew, it's just you Arthur," he said with a sigh as he switched his bedside lamp on. Arthur barely turned his head Ichika's direction with a blank scowl across his face.

"What is it? Do you need something from me, or just greeting me?" he asked in a slightly hostile tone.

"Huh? Um... I guess... greeting you, I suppose?"

"Whatever..." Arthur replied while he walked over to the drawer containing his drawings and opened it. After a few moments however, he halted. "Why... are these all so crumpled up? I remember leaving them in an orderly fashion."

"Oh, you mean those things? Yeeeaaaaa, see the girls were in here earlier and Charlotte happened to spot them. So we passed em around and took a look, then put em all right back," Ichika replied with a light chuckle, "Though I gotta ask, did you draw those? After all they look like they're on a professional's level."

"You're lucky as hell none of these are missing."

"H-Hey man, what's wrong? Are you feeling better at least since earlier?"

Arthur only went to the closet by his bed, fished out a gym bag, and began filling it with several pairs of clothes as well as his drawings. "Listen, you're gonna be on your own for a while. I need some alone time to think as well as work on a project of my own. Until then, I guess congratulations; you have the room to yourself once more." He commented sarcastically with a twirling finger as he slung the bag over his shoulder.

Ichika decided enough was enough while he got up to block Arthur's path. "Okay seriously, what's wrong man? You're not being your usual self," he said with a stern face, though gasped when he saw the small trickle of blood flow down Arthur's cheek, "And what happened to your cheek dude?"

"My 'Usual Self'?" he asked with a small laugh. "What do you even know about me?" Arthur then rubbed his hand over his cheek to make the blood go away, "As for the cut, that is none of your concern."

"I'd like to think I know you at least well enough to see you're troubled by something."

"Heh, says the boy who can't even tell what the girls around him feel," Arthur smirked before shoving past Ichika, though he stopped shortly before exiting the door. "Oh, by the way," he said as he pulled a slip of paper from his pocket, "You might as well have this, I'm not going to have time to go. Tell Rin I'm sorry if you don't mind, Later."

With that, Arthur was gone in a flash, leaving Ichika standing in the room's hallway with a confused look on his face. _Seriously... what is it with everyone today and getting angry with me? The hell did I do?!_


	10. Pain of Separation

I am happy to see the number of views as well as followers and favorites growing for this story. I appreciate the interest you all take in this story that I try my best to make as entertaining as possible for all of you. So without further ado, I present you chapter 10! :D Also feel free to leave a review as I always value your opinions on what I could improve on, or if you just want to say you like it (always a good motivational support).

* * *

**Chapter 10: Pain of Separation**

Rin slowly opened her eyes as she awoke from her nightly slumber. Her entire body felt as numb as a rock while she tried to yawn and stretch. She smacked her lips together as the horrible taste of morning breath flew around her. When she noticed no sound of the shower going though, she got out of bed and sulked over to Tina's bed half-awake so she could throw herself onto it. "H-Hey Tina, time to wake up," she said with a weak smile, though she quickly perked up when she felt no presence or body on the bed itself, "Huh? Maybe she got up earlier and I didn't notice... Oh well, shower all to myself!" she leaped up as she hurried in.

_I'm sure today will be good as ever! Now that everyone knows he chose me... I get to rub it in all their faces while he isn't looking... _she thought to herself with a devilish grin. After a few minutes of the water dousing her though, she felt a slight tug at her heart, but it was one of the kind that brought a sincere smile to her face. _That's right... out of everyone... he chose me. _Her face turned bright red as she leaned back against the wall of the shower. _I wonder though, W-Will I be able to... make him like me for sure?_ She thought while putting her hands against her chest. _ No... I will wow him for sure! I'll make him see what a mature and fun person I truly am! Then surely after the date, he'll want me to be his one and only!_ Rin started jabbing the air with a confident grin as if someone was there, until she heard her room's door creak open alongside footsteps that sounded as if the person was merely sliding across the ground.

Rin quickly turned off the shower before covering herself in a towel so she could sneak a peak at her 'invader'. She slowly opened the door while she tiptoed over to the corner. What she saw however, was an exhausted Tina groaning into her pillow with a really depressing aura around her. _I know Tina's my friend and all... but I'm really wondering whether this is the time to ask what's wrong or not_ She pondered with a glum look on her face.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid..." she kept hearing Tina mutter like a broken record. _Maybe later... _Rin convinced herself.

"H-Hey Tina, you want to take a shower right now?"

"No Rin, I'm fine. You just... go on and do your thing." Tina blankly replied while waving her away with one hand.

"W-Well okay then... do you need anything?"

"Just peace, quiet, and lots of sleep..." she said with a slurred voice until all Rin could hear was her silent breathing.

_Yup... she's not getting out of here today._

* * *

Charlotte kept looking into the bathroom mirror as she practiced her usual smile that she believed always kept Ichika partial towards her. _A new day, A new adventure! _She thought gleefully._ I wonder what we all might get to do today?_ She pondered to herself, but was interrupted by Laura banging on the door.

"Excuse me! I do believe a bath should not take one so long!"

"One moment, please!" Charlotte happily responded. She quickly finished getting herself ready as she opened the door slightly embarrassed to an agitated Laura.

"One must wonder what it is you do in there sometimes to take so long..."

"Oh, um... I was just... brushing my teeth is all," Charlotte replied nervously.

"A likely story," Laura scoffed as she walked in and slammed the door shut behind her.

Charlotte flinched at the loud slam, but knew it was only Laura trying to pretend to be her old self. _It's kind of adorable actually, but at least she's starting to learn a few tricks_ she giggled to herself before yet another knock rung through her ears, this time at the dorm door however. _Hm, quite the busy morning I see... I wonder who it could be? _When she finally turned the knob and pulled it open though, she felt her legs tense up as well as her chest start to shake nervously. "I-I-Ichika?!"

"Hey Charl, what's up?" he asked casually, but looked at her puzzlingly when he noticed her shaking. "Is something wrong? Or is this just a bad time?"

"N-No, not at all! Come in if you wish!" she stuttered while holding a welcoming hand open.

"Well, actually... I wanted you to walk with me to breakfast. See, there was something I wanted to talk to you about," he replied while scratching his head shyly.

"Y-You... want to walk with...me?" she asked shockingly while she felt her heartbeat skyrocket. _Oh my gosh, I don't believe it! H-He wants to walk with me out of everyone else! _she thought with a sense of joy. _Oh, it's just so exciting... wait... maybe he'll even decide to take me on the date instead!_ Her eyes sparkled with intense delight as the thought crossed her mind.

"W-Well yea, I figured you would be the person to go to for this... certain matter."

"O-Oh, well if you insist, I guess I should," she stuttered for a moment before slipping on her shoes then knocking on the bathroom door. "Laura! Hey I'm going ahead to breakfast now, don't take too long okay?"

"I heard another voice out there! Do we have an intruder?!"

Charlotte turned slowly to look at Ichika who was puzzled by Laura's quick reply. "N-No don't worry Laura, it's just me, Ichika."

"What?!" Laura yelled at the top of her lungs. Almost like clockwork they heard the shower turn off instantly, followed by a quick swing of the door to where a naked Laura leaped at Ichika. "So, you were planning on taking my bride alone with you, were you Charlotte? You're far more clever than I thought," she observed with a clever smirk while putting a choke-hold around Ichika, who yelped slightly in pain from her iron grip, "But you must remember that I am relentless, and I shall not yield my bride to anyone!"

"No Laura, y-you misunderstand! He was just asking me to-"

"What do you all think you're doing?" a familiar, serious voice echoed through their ears as they slowly peered around to the opened room door. Chifuyu stood there with her usual overwhelming presence that even made Laura back down like a frightened kitten.

"I-I-Instructor, h-how are you this... morning?" Laura chuckled nervously as she tried to hide the shaking in her legs.

"Bodewig..." she muttered irritatingly with her normal scowl, "What do you think you're doing... on a male student without clothes on?"

"I-I-It's not entirely what you think Instructor! I swear!"

"Oh really?" Chifuyu replied while crossing her arms.

"Y-Yes, Miss Orimura!" Charlotte timidly interrupted with a nervous smile, "You see uh... Laura is still slowly adjusting to civilian life, which I'm trying to help get done as quickly as possible..."

"Go on..." Chifuyu said with an intrigued grin.

"May I still remind everyone this girl is choking the life out of me!" Ichika cried out, but to no avail since Chifuyu's presence had both the girls in it's grip.

_Poor Ichika... _Charlotte thought with a sigh. _You wouldn't be in this position if you would've just kept quiet. You of all people here should know how Laura gets around you... _

_ "_W-well anyways, even though she's adjusting well... these kind of outbursts might be... expected, yes?"

"So what you're saying, is that I should hold you responsible for her actions, Dunois?"

That felt like a bullet through the heart as Charlotte had a blank smile while she looked from Chifuyu to Laura then back again.

Charlotte decided then to peel the clinging Laura off of Ichika so she could help her get dressed. "Charlotte, you traitor! What do you think you are doing?!"

"If you'll both excuse the two of us for a moment... we need to finish getting ready," she said with an awkward chuckle before pushing Ichika out the door.

"Charl?"

"Looks like from now on... if you want one of us to go, apparently we're now a packaged deal," she winked while slowly shutting the door. _Phew... that was so tense I thought I was going to die... _she sighed deeply as she leaned against the door and slipped gently to the floor. When she raised her head though, an annoyed Laura stared back in her direction. Charlotte was partially scared, but knew she couldn't let Laura know that so they could finish getting ready as soon as possible. "Alright, Laura could you please go get dressed?"

"Tell me why I should indulge in your request..."

"Well... we need to go to breakfast, go to class, you know the kind of things we do everyday," she replied while trying to stay as calm as possible.

Laura narrowed her eyes at her, until finally it seemed she gave in as she walked over to her closet beside her bed. "You win this round, Charlotte."

"Thank you." Charlotte said with a bright smile. _Thank heavens that's over... now, I wonder what it is Ichika wanted?_

* * *

Ichika kept waiting outside with a bored look across his face. Luckily, his older sister Chifuyu had already left saying she had to make sure the other freshman students weren't slacking as well. He kept tapping his shoes against the other to pass the time while he could hear Charlotte and Laura making noises within the room, though none seemed to be of real concern. _I really hope Charl will know the answer... maybe I did something to Arthur that pissed him off, yet I can't think of anything of the sort._ He figured with a sigh as he scratched his head agitatedly.

"You seem bored. Is there a particular reason you're waiting outside this room?" he heard a voice down the hallway mutter.

"Oh, good morning Houki. Nice to see you," he replied with a happy smile and a wave.

"Likewise," she plainly responded, "So I heard you got into an accident yesterday. How bad was it?"

_Uh-oh..._ he thought to himself in despair. "Uhhh, yea it... wasn't anything bad really. Nothing to worry about, alright?"

"Tch. From what I heard you got beaten down in less than 10 seconds. Ichika, that's just pitiful," she scowled while maintaining the overwhelming presence of a teacher. "Just because of that, I'm going to make sure your kendo training today makes you suffer, so you'll learn to not let yourself get surprised so easily."

"Aw, come on Houki, the guy caught me by surprise!"

"Exactly!" she yelled while pointing her finger close to his face, "There's no excuse why you should've let that happen!"

"Well then maybe you should try facing a deranged friend of yours," he muttered silently while looking away.

"What was that?!"

"Uh, n-nothing! Nothing at all!" he chuckled nervously. Houki was at the breaking point of where she was about to hit him until the room's door swung open.

"We're ready!" Charlotte declared with that same sparkling smile of hers. Yet when she looked at the two of them, she seemed confused, but also sort of disappointed.

"Oh, um, Miss Houki... are we interrupting something?" she asked while Laura slowly creeped over her shoulder like a cautious kitten.

"Hmph. No, just Ichika being his usual self," she grumbled before strolling off on her own.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" he yelled at her while she kept walking further away. _Great job Ichika... now she'll be worse this afternoon during training_ he thought to himself with a cold shiver running down his back from the image of it all.

"Um, Ichika?" Charlotte's nervous- sounding voice broke him out of his trance while he turned back to see her trying to ease Laura off of her, though it didn't seem to be working. "You...wanted me to walk with you, right?" she asked while blushing and nervously looking away.

"Well... really I wanted to talk to you about something important," he said which apparently made Charlotte perk right back up in an excited fashion. Though this new-found mood of hers was slightly broken when Laura made sure her presence was known to the two of them.

"Then I should be able to hear it as well considering I am your groom, correct?" she interjected as she popped her head over Charlotte.

"Laura, why are you hiding? You should be more sociable," Charlotte scolded her before quickly switching her around to be in-between both of them.

_Good to see Charlotte's still adjusting well with her new roommate..._ Ichika smiled to himself as they walked down the hallway together. _I have to admit I was really worried about her when I heard the news. I'm sure though if anyone could help protect her, it's Laura for sure._

"Anyways, you had something to talk to me about, Ichika?" Charlotte asked out of the blue while she cutely leaned forward with her usual smile.

"Oh, right I almost forgot," he chuckled to himself while scratching his nose, "Well, you see... I think I may have upset Arthur somehow."

"Like it matters," Laura coldly added. "That boy is a dangerous fool and nothing more. Someone like him is a joke of an IS pilot," she said with a huff as she increased her pace.

_Yikes... looks like that's a touchy subject for Laura._

"You can't blame her for thinking that Ichika," Charlotte whispered in his ear, "After all he did try to harm you yesterday without hesitation."

"Well yea, but you and I both know he didn't mean it. It was an accident, right?" he whispered back.

"I agree, but you need to look at it from her perspective."

"Well, Laura's kind of a hard person to put myself as."

Charlotte only sighed in response whilst shaking her head, "You're so hopeless sometimes."

"What? What'd I say?"

"Nothing," she waved off with a flick of her hand, "Just explain what happened."

"Well I mean... he just kinda came into the room late last night, and I found it kind of strange so I asked if he was alright. He seemed agitated whenever I asked and then I questioned him over this small cut that had suddenly appeared on his cheek with dried blood."

"A... cut?"

"Yea, like something from a blade, not just some random item."

"I guess that is sort of strange... what happened next?"

"Well he packed his stuff into a bag and told me he would be gone for a couple of weeks, then just left."

"Gone? You mean like back to America?"

"I don't know. The thing that troubled me though was how hostile he was during the whole thing. I think something happened or maybe I pissed him off somehow, I'm not too sure."

"He is probably just feeling guilty."

"Why would he be hostile if he was feeling guilty though? Doesn't guilt usually make people, I don't know, apologize?"

"How exactly would you expect him to apologize for something like that? You need to see it from his perspective as well."

"H-He's so different from me though..."

"Ugh..." Charlotte sighed as she shook her head with a frown, "Let me give you something of an idea."

"A-Alright."

"Say if you had almost fatally wounded let's say... Miss Houki. You would be very upset about that, no?"

Ichika felt a slight pain in his chest at the thought of him hurting Houki like that. She was his first childhood friend after all, and he considered her highly important to him. "I-I guess... when you put it that way."

"So you see he can't just walk up to you and say 'Hey I'm sorry I almost killed you, anyways let's go practice' or something along those lines."

"You make it sound like all he does is train," Ichika chuckled as they finally rounded the last corner to the cafeteria. _Looks like we couldn't beat the rush... _Ichika frowned as he looked at the long line of people in front of him. _Guess that's what I get for staying behind to wait_ he figured as he stomach rumbled.

"This will not do," Laura huffed.

"Now, now Laura don't make a scene," Charlotte urged carefully.

"We are hungry though, no?"

"Yes, but so is everyone else. So we need to wait our turn."

"Hmph. Fine, I'll accept your terms for now Charlotte."

_Never thought I'd see Laura give in to someone else's demands. Wonder what Charlotte did to put her under control like this?_ Ichika pondered as the line started to slowly shrink. "Charlotte's right Laura, we should be able to get our food in about 5-10 minutes tops from the looks of things."

"W-well, if you insist that that is the case..." Laura stuttered while continually pressing two fingers together, "I-I guess I can... wait a while."

_Never seen Laura so nervous before... I wonder what brought that on all of a sudden._

* * *

_Ugh... my arms hurt like hell _Arthur thought to himself as he laid his head down on the table. _Pulled an all-nighter, yet I'm still not even a tiny bit closer to understanding the defect here. _He let out a silent groan while he folded his arms together to try and keep the lights in the room from piercing his eyes. _Just... 5 minutes of sleep. 5 minutes and it'll all be over..._

"H-Hey Arthur, is everything alright?" a cheery, yet concerning voice asked him.

_Heh... I must be getting close to dreaming now... someone's wonderful voice is already beckoning to me_ he thought with a wide grin. When he heard 3 trays hit the table followed by the same amount of thuds, he figured someone had actually come to his table. _Damn... I wonder who that could b-_ he stopped thinking as his raised eyes met with Charlotte, Ichika, and Laura's. As usual Laura didn't seem to either pay him any mind or whenever she did, would look at him with a disapproving frown. Ichika's on the other hand, easily created a tense atmosphere at the table as he apparently found himself dumbfounded on what to say, while Charlotte retained her trademark smile.

"Oh my my, you have rings under your eyes. Were you up all night or something?" Charlotte asked with the same concerned tone.

_Nice to have Charlotte keeping an eye on me I suppose. Maybe she's just worried over yesterday_ he thought on a positive note.

"Hmph. He's probably just tired from staying up an extra hour or so. Not very disciplined if you ask me," Laura grunted.

_Aaaaaaannnndddd I've clearly gone full circle in this table of different people now_ he continued while his head slumped back down onto the table.

"L-Laura! That was very rude!" he could hear Charlotte whine, "Apologize this instant!"

"You sure do like looking down on other people don't ya?" Arthur replied with a snicker.

"Only on those who are not worthy of the things they receive."

"Heh... so you think I don't deserve anything, do ya?" he asked as he raised his head back up to directly meet her gaze with his own.

"H-Hey now guys, why don't we all just calm down and enjoy a nice breakfast, alright?" Ichika suggested to try and mellow the mood.

"I agree," Charlotte added in haste, "I-It is just a rough morning is all, I'm sure we'll all be in much better spirits later, yes?"

"If you may excuse me then, I have research to get to," Arthur frowned as he got up to go, but stopped when he felt Charlotte tug on his sleeve.

"H-Hey... everything is okay, alright? We know you didn't mean to do any of that."

Arthur sighed while he peered back her way. "You know they say you can't let your past weigh you down, and if you do you're a lost cause."

"It is the past that gives us the strength to move forward though, no?"

Arthur chuckled while he touched her arm with his hand she was holding. "I really do wish someone like you could've been my childhood friend," he said with a weak smile. He could tell she grew surprised and embarrassed while the other two looked on in shock. "Maybe if someone like you could've influenced me... I wouldn't be this way," he finished as he let go of her arm, then started walking off to class, leaving all three of them with puzzled faces.

* * *

Tina found herself sitting on a rooftop of a familiar place to her in the middle of what felt like a cool spring night. _This weather... is so nice_ she thought to herself with a soft smile as she stared up at the full moon above her in the sky overlooking the sand dunes around the buildings. _Wait a minute _she figured with a raised brow_ Haven't I... seen this before?_ She looked at her surroundings to see she was at the old base in the US her and Arthur had been stationed at. She had apparently been on top of one of the barracks for the troops as the section she was in had several of them, while an office building sat in the background of the place behind them all, with 5 modified aircraft hangars meant to house IS units with roads leading to a single massive airstrip in front of them on the other side of the barracks. _ How did I get here?_ _And if I'm here, then where is...?_

"H-Hey there, why are you up here all alone?" a voice she knew all too well beckoned to her. She quickly stood up as she cupped her hands together near her chest to see Arthur crawling up on the roof of the barracks. _Arthur? B-But how are you-_

"None of your business," she heard someone with her voice reply in a hostile tone. She turned herself around to see another her in normal US Army fatigues with a small black string tied around a lock of her hair in a ribbon shape staring at the moon like she had been only moments ago. _W-What the? How is this possible? I'm right here, aren't I?_

"When you say it like that, it's hard for anyone to want to come help you," Arthur replied as he walked over to sit next to this new Tina that had appeared.

"I've told you before already, I don't need anyone's help. Especially not yours," The other her responded as she looked the other way with a huff. _Why are they acting... as if I'm not here at all?_ When Tina tried to lay a hand on Arthur, she was surprised to see it go right through him, as if she was a ghost. She gasped and pulled her hand back immediately as she took a few steps back. The fact she couldn't even touch Arthur made her look back to the ground in despair. _That's right... I remember now. He doesn't want me near him, doesn't he? _Tina started to sniffle while small tears began to form, until she heard what this Arthur said next.

"Well like it or not, everyone needs help Hamilton. It's something you can't escape," he said in a nagging tone.

"You're one to talk," the other her scoffed, "Aren't you the one who's had to do everything on his own here?"

"Heh, believe it or not, that's really not all that true. I had lots of help to get me where I am today."

"Is that so?" she replied weakly as she curled up into a ball, "You're lucky then you know."

"Hm? How is that exactly?"

"To have all these people at your side, ready and willing to help because they legitimately worry about you. I mean think about it," she said as she brought her fingers up to count, "You've got Kelley, that new AI of yours, Colonel Robertson, and even those other two girls that have been hanging around you lately. I'm sure you don't even know what it's like... to not have those kind of things." After she had finished, the other her started to cry softly to herself.

"That's where you're wrong," he chuckled softly before he put his hand next to hers. The other Tina gasped silently with a slightly red face as she tried to ease her hand away from his.

_Wait... I remember this night. This is the night where..._

"I tell ya what," Arthur started as he scooted next to her, "If you ever need a friend or someone to lean on, I'll be there okay?"

"Why... Why would you do that?" she asked nervously, her head dipping near her lap as it turned more red by the second while she tried to wipe her tears.

"Because I'd hate to see a pretty girl like you be sad," he replied as he put his arm around her, "So from now on, we're friends, okay?"

The other her was obviously shaking very nervously at all that was going on to the point where Tina was surprised steam wasn't coming out of her ears. "You- You're sure that I'm worth your time?"

"Of course you are," he laughed with a warm smile, "I've got your back, as long as you've got mine alright?"

Small sniffles filled the air around the two of them until the other Tina reluctantly laid her head on his shoulder. "So... you'll protect me? You'll stand by me whenever I need someone?"

"I don't see why not," Arthur laxly replied with that same smile as he patted her shoulder. The other her then suddenly pressed her lips up against his own as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"H-Hamilton?"

"It's Tina," she smiled with tears of joy, "My name is Tina. You can call me by that instead of my last name."

"Uh, a-alright... T-Tina," Arthur nervously stuttered with a blushed face.

She let out a deep sigh of relief before laying her head against his chest, "Sorry, it's just that... no one's ever told me that before. They always just got close to me because of what family I'm from, or they would take advantage of the fact my older sister was popular with everyone so they used me to get close to her. In all those years though, not even one has said to me what you have just said."

"I-I'm sorry to hear that," he frowned as he started stroking his hand through her hair, "If it makes you feel any better, I didn't really have any friends before I came here as well."

"Really?" she looked up at him curiously, "Considering how you get along casually with everyone here, I find that hard to believe."

"Well, you might as well believe it," he answered back while he put his arms around her, "So that's already one thing we have in common." The other her's hands slipped down to his chest as he held her close. "So for the sake of never letting that happen to anyone else, I'll protect you as much as I can."

"Y-You promise?" she asked while she closed her eyes.

"Of course I do," he replied while he laid his head next to hers.

_The night when he let me in where no one else could be..._ Tina figured as she felt her heartbeat quicken at the memory of the scene in front of her. _Everyone needs help huh... Then why won't he ever let me help him? Is it really so hard for him to follow his own words? _

"Then, I'll give you something to remember it by," she replied while her hands went to untying the black string around her hair, "My mother gave me this... before she passed away."

"I'm sorry to hear she's gone. Is it because of that, you find it hard to be close to others or some kind of similar experience?"

She nodded as she slipped it around his hand then tied it in a knot at the wrist. "Her mother, my grandma, gave her this same thing when she was little," she said with a sincere smile, "She told her to keep it tied around a piece of her hair... then to give it to the one she thinks she can trust the most. My father ended up being that person..."

Arthur seemed setback slightly by the gesture as he kept staring nervously at her. "A-Are you sure that you want to give it to me though? I-I mean after all... it's something left by your mother."

"I don't mind," she happily replied, "I always felt you and I would... eventually have a conversation like this anyway."

"Huh? Why's that?"

"W-Well... I-I've been keeping an eye on you in a way for a certain someone," she muttered nervously until she suddenly perked back up, "B-But, if it makes up for it at all... I've only said good things about you!"

"Heh, I'm touched," he replied after a few awkwardly silent moments.

"E-Eh?"

"Well, I mean," he chuckled while scratching his head, "To have the best pilot in our contender exam class say good things about me while also looking my way quite often... I have to say I'm honored, hehe."

"H-Honored?" she questioned while her face blushed intensely, "I-I'm not all that great..."

Arthur only patted her head with his hand with a sigh. "I think you're wrong on that part," he said then hugged her tightly, "You're much more amazing than you realize."

"L-Lieutenant Stone..."

"It's Arthur."

"Huh?"

"Since I'll be calling you Tina, you can just call me Arthur, alright?"

"A-Alright," she stuttered as she hugged him back.

"From now on, I'll do my best to make sure you can keep that beautiful smile of yours, okay?"

"O-Okay..." she responded as she seemed to melt into his embrace.

_But I want you to be able to smile too... You used to let me help you all the time. What did they to you in that month which changed you so much?_

/**Maybe he was forced to change/** A mysterious voice echoed from behind her.

_W-What?_ She thought as the scene before her started to fade away. _N-No... No, don't take that away from me!_ Tina broke into a sprint towards the image in front of her, until she suddenly tripped on an invisible floor. The last thing she saw was the two of them kissing under the stars, then finally disappearing altogether.

_No..._ she slammed her hands on the ground while all that surrounded her suddenly turned white.

**/It's alright/** the voice from before echoed again.

Tina turned around to see a bright, glowing orb descend from above to her level. "Wh-Who... What are you?"

**/I am that which can become your shield, yet I can also become your sword./**

"What... do you mean by that?"

**/I mean exactly as I say. Now for the current matter... Why do you torture yourself over such things?/**

"Y-You mean... my relationship with Arthur?"

**/Yes. I do not understand your interest in the boy. Would it not be better to let go, so that you can move on with your mission?/**

"Heh, maybe you're right," she answered while folding her arms with a soft smirk to the ground, "However... I just don't think I could bring myself to do that."

**/And why is that?/**

"B-Because I believe he needs my help as much as I need his." The orb only responded by fluttering around her as if it was observing everything about her. _Curious little thing aren't you..._

**/So you intend to bring harm to yourself... even when you don't know the conclusion of said choice?/**

"That's what happens when you're in love," she replied as she put her hand to her chest, "You take risks for that other person you normally wouldn't for anyone else."

**/Then I believe it is time you make a decision./**

_Huh?_ Tina wondered as everything around her started fading away.

**/As I cannot fully understand, I will just have to support any action you take... Master./**

_M-M-Master?!_ She gasped until everything suddenly disappeared.

* * *

"I demand to know the meaning of this!" Cecilia shouted as she slammed her hand on the desk.

"I told you... it's a personal matter," Arthur replied in an annoyed tone as he kept typing on the holo-keyboard for his desk's built-in computer.

"Do you know how much I had to go through to secure this reservation for this date?!"

Cecilia watched as he stopped for a moment then returned her anger with a confused look. "You're telling me that YOU personally went to make it?"

"Well, Y-Yes of course."

"Not your servants? Or a business employee? You yourself went to make them is what you're telling me right now?"

_W-Well... not exactly_ she thought to herself embarrassingly. "I...I-I um..."

"That point aside, all it means is that Ichika can invite another person to tag along." Immediately everyone turned back their way once his words met their ears.

"Another chance...?"

"To go on a date w-with Orimura?"

"Am I dreaming?!"

"I-Ichika!" Charlotte suddenly yelled out, though not before Houki and Laura had instantly descended upon him as well.

"Who would you l-like to choose?!" the three of them shouted in unison.

Ichika himself could barely utter a word as the three girls faces etched ever closer to his. He showed them a half-baked smile while they only became more serious, until...

"Take your seats, all of you!" Chifuyu bellowed as all followed her order immediately, the tension in the room climbing higher and higher, until Ms. Yamada made her way to her stand at the front of the room.

"Now everyone, Miss Orimura has an announcement to make," she said while motioning over to Chifuyu who made her way up to the stand next.

"Ahem. Since all of you passed your mid-terms and have actually become the freshman class with the highest grade average... we have decided to reward you in a way."

"R-Reward?" several girls let out while Cecilia herself gasped. _Miss Orimura... is being nice to us?_ She could tell from the others faces as well they were just as shocked, though Arthur remained fixated on whatever he was looking for on the computer.

"We've decided to let you out early to get lunch, after you've gotten whatever you need bring it along to the third arena. We'll have a surprise for you then," she smirked as she started to walk away, but stopped for a second, "And Stone."

"Yes ma'am?" he asked with a perked up head.

"Come with me for a moment."

"A-Alright," he agreed and exited the room with her.

_Hmph. What is so special about him that he gets her full attention?_ She pouted while the girls all got into their social groups before darting for the cafeteria.

"I wonder what the surprise is..." Ichika muttered curiously.

"Yes, I am quite intrigued myself," Charlotte added.

"I would have never expected that from the Instructor," Laura added as well.

"Either way, we may as well go see what it is they have to show us," Houki muttered as she headed for the cafeteria.

* * *

"Is there something important you need to tell me, Miss Orimura?" Chifuyu could hear Arthur ask her while they continued walking down the hallway.

"Yes, you seem... groggy and tired. How late were you up last night practicing in that thing?"

"Y-You knew I was practicing?"

"Yea, you know it's kinda hard to not notice the many drag marks in the arena left by you."

"Yea... I suppose so," he chuckled nervously while scratching his head, "Well I couldn't sleep at all. I'm sure you noticed me trying to figure out more about the PIC on the computer as well."

"Yes, I did," she sighed, "Anyways, after class I'll have Maya take you to your new temporary quarters, alright?"

"So that's how we're doing it? Sounds good to me. By the way, where are we going?"

Chifuyu then turned to open a door to a room full of office desks. "The teacher's lounge. Here, I can talk to you in privacy."

"Hm? You have something else to talk to me about?"

"Is that a problem?" she turned to him, which she could tell the scowl she put on sent a cold shiver down his spine.

"N-No... not at all," he answered as they both walked in.

* * *

Tina leaned back on the shower wall as the hot, warm water sprinkled all over her. _Aaaahhhh... that feels so much better_ she relaxed with a smile while she wrapped her arms around her chest. _What was with that dream though? _She wondered while it kept playing back through her head in a looped fashion. _Was I supposed to learn something from it... or just remember better times... _

Tina's head sunk while a small frown covered her face as the water dripped down it into the drain. _I.. can't do what he said. I can't forget about him. _She started giggling to herself, though she was confused as to where this sudden silliness had come from. _Just look at me... here I was supposed to just observe him... and yet I let him get this close to me. I have to admit I was surprised though at how fast daddy and him got along with each other. _The memories of when he went with her to visit her family brought a warm feeling to her heart. _That was also when he was first revealed to the entire world... _

She remembered how her father had brought the two of them up on stage in front of the White House after the government had finally decided it was time to show the world their newest "toy." _I still re-call how nervous we both were in front of all those people and cameras _she smiled while her hand rested on her chest. Tina herself could still remember how Arthur had a cold shiver that day, or how funny it was to watch him try to get in a tuxedo... or how tightly they both held each others hand while they were up on stage. She let out a deep sigh as she decided to start covering herself with soap. _Maybe I should just try to distract myself for awhile... If I do nothing but think about him, I'll never be able to keep my sanity _she pondered until an idea popped in her head. _Maybe Rin can think of something for us both to do today!_ She reassured herself as she slapped her hands together.

"All right then! I'll meet up with her after class and see what we can do!," she shouted with a confident smile. _After all... Rin's finally getting to go on a date with Ichika. I should try to support her as much as I can!_

* * *

Tabane trudged up the road as she kept looking at all the country homes on both sides. _You know I'd feel at peace here... if it wasn't so hot! _She groaned to herself as she felt the beads of sweat drip down her face. _Even at night, there's barely a cool breeze... what I wouldn't do for some A/C right now. _Her feet still ached from the two mile long trek she had to make to wherever it is Arthur had sent her. _That kid better have deep pockets _she growled to herself _because he owes me a new rocket pod!_

She finally came across a mailbox with the right number she was looking for, which made her heart leap full of joy. _Ugh... finally I've made it here._ When she saw the rock road that led from the steel pipe front gate all the way up a hill to a barn on the top, her head hung down in exhaustion. "Seriously, what is with this place and the long walks?!" she complained as loud as she could. When no obvious response came, she started to continue walking her aching legs up the road. _I hope whoever lives here has a nice bath or pool to soak in _she giggled to herself excitedly. _And a looooooot of soda! _With her good mood restored, she instantly took off up the road at zipping speeds.

* * *

Ichika managed to somehow keep his lunch from falling off it's tray as he sat down at a spot on the arena's stands. As soon as he did however, he found the 5 usual girls who stuck around him trying to sit as close to him as possible. Of course as to his expectations as well, the moment he tried to go after his food, each one offered a piece of their own as if on cue. _Seriously guys, I get being friendly... but this is getting ridiculous..._ Ichika sighed as they all stared to him awaiting his response. He knew he couldn't stomach to hurt their feelings, so he took a bite from each of them, leaving them all with caring smiles.

While they tried to talk to him, he found himself looking over to Arthur who had come back with the class later and decided to sit on his own away from everyone else. _Is he really going to beat himself up over this forever? _He thought as he felt a frown come to his face. _I feel sorry for the guy... he's probably beating himself up pretty badly over it, if what Charlotte said was true. _

Ichika was about to get up, but saw Charlotte herself had already started her way over to Arthur to see if he was okay. At least when she sat down near him, he seemed to perk up a bit, which brought some relief to Ichika.

"Huh, Charlotte seems to be getting along with him quite nicely," he could hear Houki mutter as she looked over to the two of them.

"Yes, I agree... though I cannot understand why she puts herself near that boy," Laura growled as she took a bite out of an apple.

"I seriously don't understand what it is you have against him," Ichika said as he turned to her.

"It's because that boy has proven to be nothing but trouble," Cecilia added out of the blue, "Yesterday was just another thing to add to the list of reasons why I don't personally like him either."

"Y-You too, Cecilia?" Ichika asked surprisingly.

"But of course... to go to all the trouble of getting that thing set up, then for him to just back out like that. It's incredibly rude and inconsiderate."

"Right, because you are just brimming with consideration and empathy for others," Houki added sarcastically.

Cecilia scowled towards Houki, who quickly returned the favor, until Chifuyu's voice interrupted everyone's conversations.

"Alright! Today we've decided to treat you to watch a battle between representatives! The only thing is we'll let you all vote over who should fight in a two on two battle!"

"So consider your choices carefully!" Miss Yamada added with a smile.

Ichika suddenly felt a couple of dark auras around him send a shiver down his spine as Laura and Cecilia quickly raised their hands. "We'll both fight Ma'am!" Cecilia shouted then pointed her finger over towards Arthur, "As long as HE is our opponent!"

Ichika could tell Arthur was very agitated by the remark as he continued chewing on a french fry. "Sorry, but I don't think that'll be possible," he said as he swallowed.

"Nonsense," Chifuyu interrupted with a smirk, "That shall be determined by your classmates. What do you all think?!"

Many of the girls in the stands cheered until he saw Honne pop up with Yuzu as well. "Why don't we let Miss Dunois be his partner as well?! She's already right there!" they both said with deceptive grins.

"M-M-Me?!" Charlotte stuttered with a ruby red face as she looked around frantically.

"I guess I've got no choice..." Arthur sighed after a while as he got up then offered a polite hand to Charlotte, who willingly accepted after a couple seconds. Before they walked off towards the locker room though, Arthur glared back at Cecilia and Laura with a scowl that made Ichika's spine shiver yet again.

"Why is it you both want to fight me so badly?"

They both smirked as they walked off to the other end of the arena to get to their launch bay. Arthur narrowed his eyes before shaking his head and followed after Charlotte. _This... probably isn't going to end well _Ichika figured with a sigh as Houki put a hand on his shoulder.

"You know it's probably better that everything gets settled now, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yea..." he agreed, "I guess it is."

* * *

Charlotte finished slipping into her flight uniform as she heard Arthur slam his locker shut on the other side of the row.

"I'm sorry you had to get caught up in this Charlotte... I'm sure you would rather not fight Laura," she could hear him say in a depressing tone.

"N-No no, you do not need to be... after all, it is just a practice match, yes?"

"Yea, I guess so," he sighed, "It looks like I'll probably be the center of their attention. At least that way you won't be targeted as much."

"You're saying to use you as a decoy?" she replied surprised.

"I don't see why not. That way you can work your magic," he chuckled as he came around the lockers to see her. She blushed slightly when he stopped and his eyes seemed to gaze at her in her skin-tight suit.

"Y-You... can stop staring now," she said nervously as she cradled her chest with her hands.

"Y-Yea... sorry," he blushed while looking away.

"You're a pervert, you know..." she muttered while she turned around.

"Heh, the way I see it that's better than saying you're ugly or something like that."

"That's... true I suppose," Charlotte answered as she felt her face blush intensely.

"W-Well, I guess we should get going to the launch bay," he said after a few seconds of awkward silence between the two. As he walked past her though, she felt a question burning within her that needed to be said as she grabbed his hand quickly.

"Charlotte? Everything alright?" he asked with a puzzled face when he looked back her way.

"Well... what you said earlier..."

"Hm? Earlier? You mean about our battle strategy?"

"N-No... about me being your... childhood friend," she said as her face looked up to his with a nervous frown.

"What about it?"

"Did... Did you mean what you said?"

The tension had skyrocketed over the next couple of seconds between the two before Arthur let out a deep sigh. "Yea... I meant every word of it."

The bluntness of his reply made her gasp slightly while she let go of his hand. "O-Oh... well um... thank you, I suppose."

Arthur merely made a slight laugh as his eyes stared into her own. "Well, consider the fact that you're a peacekeeper, which is a rare find."

"A... peacekeeper? How is that?"

"Well I mean just look at how you handle things. When I see you along with Ichika and the others, you always seem to be the one to calm the situation down. That's not a talent many have... you should consider that," he said with a sincere smile.

_So... you think I am special? _She thought to herself joyfully. "You should stay like this you know," she uttered as he stared at her puzzled.

"What do you mean by that exactly?"

"This... nicer side of you. Everyone can get along with you when you're like this. So why don't you stay like that?"

"I wish I could," he chuckled as he started walking off ahead of her.

_What does he mean by that?_ She wondered with a sigh. _It's really such a shame... He's a lot like Ichika in a way, yet... he's also very different._

* * *

Arthur finally made his way to the middle of the launch bay then let out a deep breath of fresh air. _We're really gonna be at a huge disadvantage with this being my IS of choice... with it's condition I'd probably be better off piloting a mass production Revive model from the school. At least then I'd be able to give Charlotte some fire support..._

"U-Um Arthur, is everything alright?" Charlotte pondered out of the blue.

"Huh? O-Oh yea... everything's fine," he stuttered while he looked around the launch bay. "Damn," he muttered under his breath.

"Is there... something you need in here?"

"Sweet relief is more like it," he said with a deep sigh as he shook his head. _Seriously, what the hell's Chifuyu thinking putting me against these two?! Especially with no weapons on this thing!_

"Looking for something?" Chifuyu's voice echoed from out of nowhere. They both turned in surprise to see her with Miss Yamada on a screen above them.

"Well yea, I'm kind of wondering how exactly I'm supposed to fight back," he answered back puzzled.

"What do you mean by that, Arthur? Charlotte asked with a raised brow, "Your Gabriel has enough weapons to fight back, right?"

"Problem is," he shrugged, "I don't exactly have the Gabriel on-hand."

"... Eh?" she gasped in disbelief as one of her eyes twitched, "W-What... does that mean?"

_Here I thought we'd be keeping it a secret for a while, but I guess not _he frowned to himself as he materialized his new IS around him.

"W-When did you get a new IS?!" Charlotte asked in astonishment as she gazed at it from top to bottom. He could tell her eyes had some degree of worry in them, but paid it no mind.

"Only recently... unfortunately this thing doesn't have any weapons, and the ignition boost won't work with the experimental PIC. So a decoy is really the best I'm gonna be able to do for you."

"I-I-If that's all you had... why did you accept their request in the first place?!" she spat out while hitting her face with her palm.

"Don't worry, Dunois. I wasn't planning on letting him fly that machine in the battle. It wouldn't be on equal terms," Chifuyu interrupted as a segment of the bay's wall opened up to reveal Arthur's Striker in a deactivated form. "We've also reloaded all of it's weapons as well. As a student of the IS Academy, you are allowed the usage of our ammo stockpiles within the armory to keep your weapons at maximum efficiency."

"Huh, you don't say," Arthur considered with a satisfactory smirk, "Even the spares?"

"Of course."

"Ohohoho, this is gonna be fun," he chuckled sinisterly as he slapped his hands together.

"A-Arthur, are you going to be okay?" Charlotte nervously giggled.

"Oh, I think I'll be just fine," he replied in a sinister tone and hopped out of his new IS, "Just need to switch the cores back and we should be good to go." Immediately he went to typing on the holo-keyboard to open up the spot where the core lay inside. "By the way, if you could keep this IS as our little secret, I'd really appreciate it," he said with a wink.

"Y-Yea, sure..." Charlotte answered as she materialized her own customized Revive.

Arthur found himself pausing his typing as he looked over at Charlotte in her rather ornate orange-colored Revive. _She actually... looks kind of cute in that thing_ he thought as he suddenly tried to clear his throat, "That's... quite a nice machine you've got there. It looks better in person than in the images I saw."

"Images? What do you mean?"

"C'mon, you really don't think we sent Tina here first just because we finished her IS before mine, did you?" he smiled while getting back to transferring the core.

"Y-You mean she spied on us?!"

"The way you say it, you make it sound like every other country doesn't do the same thing here. I merely wanted to see what the competition was in case I got pulled into any fights, such as now."

"Well... who has she gathered data on so far?"

"Only the ones who make their fights well known... basically Ichika and you five."

"I... guess we did garner a lot of attention didn't we..." she scratched her head rather embarrassingly.

"If it makes you feel any better, out of all the observed people, I found you to be the one who would probably be the strongest."

"M-M-M-Me?! A-Are you sure you don't mean Laura perhaps?"

"Non-sense. She may have her AIC, but out of all the others you by far have the most capability to adapt to any situation, while also being cunning enough to make your enemies think you harmless via your charm."

"My... charm?" she questioned while blushing slightly. "Y-You think I have a... charm?"

"You know this would be really touching if everyone wasn't waiting on you two to get ready to launch," Chifuyu growled over the intercom which made Arthur and Charlotte both freeze still.

_Guess I kinda forgot she was there huh..._ he figured as the center chest piece finally opened to reveal the shining IS core within. "Alright alright, just gimme a second and I'll have this all ready," he said as he slipped the core back into his Gabriel, and watched the machine hum back to life. He then laid his hand on a segment of it's leg armor as the armor itself changed to his personal dark blue color. "That's right partner, you recognize me don't ya?"

"Why is the armor shifting colors? I've never seen an IS do that before."

"Just a program I put in myself. It doesn't exactly change it's parameters or anything, I just thought it looked cool."

"I...If you say so," she seemed to say sarcastically.

"Now," he started while he climbed up into the Gabriel and the armor grafted itself to him, "Time for one last bout, old buddy."

"Now that you have that, what do you think our strategy should be for those two?"

"Hmmmm... considering her AIC and cannon... along with Alcott's sniping ability from all sides, I'd say there's only one thing we can do really."

"Oh? What do you suggest?"

Arthur only smirked as he walked up to the center of the launch bay where he could clearly see across the arena Laura and Cecilia eagerly waiting outside their own. "We do what we do best," he snickered as he materialized two Jormungand bazookas on his shoulders, "We run n' gun."


End file.
